Metro Nashville Public Schools officials celebrate milestone year for academic growth and graduation rates

A graphic from Metro Nashville Public Schools shows the district’s progress in terms of TVAAS school composite designations from 2023 to 2024.

Metro Nashville Public Schools reached several milestones in terms of academic growth and performance in the 2023-24 school year, according to recent data from the district.

Tina Stenson, the district’s executive officer for research and evaluation, said during a presentation at Tuesday’s MNPS Board of Education meeting that the district recorded its highest graduation rate since tracking began in 2002. She said the district’s graduation rate reached 85.7 percent in the 2023-24 cohort, representing a 4.5 percent increase from the 2022-23 school year and a 3.9 percent increase from 2021 to 2024.

The district also noted significant growth in terms of graduation rates among Black and Hispanic students, according to Stenson’s update to the board. Hispanic students achieved a 79.3 percent graduation rate in 2024, representing a 9.5 increase from 2023 and 5.9 percent increase from 2021 to 2024. For Black students, graduation rates increased to 87.8 percent, representing a 2.2 percent increase from last year and 5.5 increase from 2021 to 2024.

In terms of academic performance, Stenson said the said a higher percentage of MNPS students reached proficiency in 2024 than they did in 2023 for every tested category. In addition, Stenson said Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) exam scores improved in every content area. She said the district also “equaled or surpassed the state for five of seven TCAP achievement or EOC subjects.” However, some of the most notable gains were made in math.

Tina Stenson, Metro Nashville Public Schools’ executive officer for research and evaluation (Screenshot)

“One-year TCAP end-of-course integrated math scores across grades 7-12 equaled or surpassed that of the state, for all three integrated math subjects,” she said.  “You can see [an increase of] 21.9 percent for integrated math one, up from the 6.6 percent [growth] rate post-pandemic and similarly, big gains for integrated math two and three,” she continued. “I do want to point out that this change comes at a difficult time, because we have new standards, new assessments, and new test items.”

In addition, Stenson noted that the district achieved a Level 5 value-added growth score from the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS) for growth in areas such as literacy, numeracy, social studies, and science, among other categories.

She said 75 percent of schools are now “meeting, exceeding and significantly exceeding growth expectations,” according to recent TVAAS findings.  

“This is really impressive, and [this metric] has increased by 7 percent from last year,” she said.

To build on this growth, Stenson said, the district plans to place more emphasis moving forward on “collaborative planning, lesson delivery, student engagement, and monitoring for mastery.”