The majority of Nashville’s public charter schools received a better grade from the state than their traditional school counterparts in the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) district.A Tennessee Firefly analysis of the recently released School Letter Grades found 62 percent of MNPS public charter schools scored a higher grade than similar traditional public schools averaged. All but one of the remaining public charter schools received at least the same grade as the traditional public-school average in the same area.Firefly staff made this analysis by comparing each of the public charter schools receiving grades in the district to traditional and magnet schools serving the same age students in the same school cluster.The disparity in grades is especially noticeable in South Davidson County’s Overton School Cluster. Public charter school Valor College Prep received an A on the School Letter Grades, while the traditional high school in the cluster, John Overton High, received a D. Valor’s two middle schools, Flagship Academy and Voyager Academy also received an A. The three traditional public schools in the Overton Cluster combined to average a C.Firefly analysis found similar results in other clusters including the following public charter schools that all received a higher grade than comparable traditional public schools averaged:¶
- KIPP Nashville College Prep, Whites Creek Cluster
- Nashville Prep, Pearl-Cohn Cluster
- RePublic High School, Hunters Lane Cluster
- KIPP Nashville Collegiate High School, Maplewood Cluster
- KIPP Academy Nashville Middle School, Maplewood Cluster
- Liberty Collegiate Academy, Maplewood Cluster
- Explore Community, Stratford Cluster (elementary and middle school)
- East End Prep, Stratford Cluster (elementary and middle school)
- Strive Collegiate, McGavock Cluster
- LEAD Prep Southeast, Glencliff Cluster
- STEM Prep Academy, Glencliff Cluster
- LEAD Cameron College Prep Middle School, Glencliff Cluster
- Rocketship United, Glencliff Cluster
- Intrepid College Prep School, Cane Ridge Cluster (middle and high school)
- KA @ The Crossings, Cane Ridge Cluster
The Tennessee Department of Education launched School Letter Grades in December after gathering input from public hearings and recommendations from a working group for how the grades should be calculated. The department opted to include multiple factors into the grade calculation that varies depending on if the school is an elementary, middle, or high school.For elementary and middle schools, achievement on state tests make up 50 percent of the grade while student growth on the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) makes up 40 percent. The remaining 10 percent of the scores comes from the TVAAS growth of students in each school who scored low (Subgroup-Lowest 25 percent) on the prior year’s state testing.The grade for high schools has the same 50 percent weight for achievement, with the remaining score breakdown of 30 percent for student growth, 10 percent for TVAAS growth of low performing students, and an additional 10 percent for how well schools prepared students for college and career readiness.The Tennessee Firefly comparison did not include Nashville based public charter schools that are under the authority of the Achievement School District or the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.¶
