Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) is reporting similar reading gains as the state averages announced yesterday, for both third and fourth-graders.District fourth-graders posted a 38 percent proficiency rate on state assessments for English language arts (ELA). That’s 3.3 percent higher than last year and the growth exceeds the state’s 2.9 percent ELA improvement average.

Apple and the PROPEL Center have partnered to host a career accelerator for 50 HBCU students, helping them develop creative and professional skills in the arts and entertainment industry.

Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Dr. Adrienne Battle says based on the district’s preliminary “quick scores,” she's optimistic about how third and fourth-graders performed on state reading assessments.

A new report from the Tennessee Charter School Center found public charter schools are outperforming traditional public schools on state measurements for student growth.

Vanderbilt University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have announced a new partnership focusing on artificial intelligence research to develop technologies for national security, as U.S. universities continue to invest more in machine learning research and education programming.

Members of the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education chose John Overton High School rising junior Hannah Nguyen to serve as one of two student board members.The board’s selection committee reviewed applications from students across the district and interviewed five finalists before determining Nguyen was the best fit to represent all MNPS students.

The education and parent advocacy organization Nashville PROPEL has released a white paper detailing what local parents think about “Nashville’s hidden literary crisis,” as well as how that crisis affects students of color.According to a news release emailed to Tennessee Firefly, less than 30 percent of students in the Metro Nashville Public Schools district are reading on grade level despite nearly 80 percent of parents believing their children are at or above grade level, a finding consistent with national trends.

Liannet Bergantino says her mother’s work helping people has been an inspiration ever since she was a child.Next fall the Intrepid College Prep Independence Academy High School graduating senior will follow that inspiration to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Bergantino plans to pursue a career in healthcare and continue down the path she started in high school of serving her community.

Metro Nashville Public Schools' alternative learning centers, or ALCs, will provide students with support "every step of the way" under redesign plans unveiled by district leaders at Tuesday’s school board meeting. 

Nashville State Community College broke ground this week on a Clarksville campus expansion that’s designed to serve students with new academic programs in healthcare, information technology, secondary education, and industrial process control.The expanded facility on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard will include a complete renovation of the existing building in addition to a second building and expanded parking. 

Daniela Castro Pu says the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) felt like home almost immediately.Castro Pu is now weeks away from finishing her sophomore year at UT and she says the experience has been everything she’d hoped for but the ideal university match wasn’t always in the cards.Castro Pu says she might never have even considered the University of Tennessee if KIPP hadn’t offered a specific scholarship created for students like her.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) announced a $5 million investment in three elementary schools made possible through a fundraising drive led by parents.Former Percy Priest Elementary School PTO President Katie Agnew and Percy Priest parent Sharon Martin led the fundraising effort that will help improve construction projects already in place to build larger gymnasiums at Percy Priest and Lakeview Elementary along with an expanded cafeteria and playtorium at Paragon Mills Elementary.

Last year LEAD Public Schools turned to one of Metro-Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) most successful principals to head up the public charter school operator’s goal of expanding to become a true K-12 network.LEAD hired then Warner Arts Magnet Elementary Principal Dr. Ricki Gibbs as its new head of elementary schools. Gibbs gained attention in the district for transforming Warner from a low performing school to a Reward School in 2022 and earned the title of MNPS Elementary Principal of the Year in 2020.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) announced a partnership with Vanderbilt Peabody College to create a new education program at John Early Middle School. The collaboration will create a lab school that provides students with education pathways that help bridging the gap between K-12 and higher education.The lab school will focus on STEAM programming and preparing students for success beyond John Early Middle School.

LEAD Public Schools has been providing families in Nashville with a school choice option since founder Jeremy Kane started LEAD Academy in 2007 for fifth and sixth-graders.Today LEAD has grown to run six public charter schools in Nashville, including four in the Metro-Nashville Public School district serving families in South Nashville and Antioch. What the charter operator believes it’s lacking though, are elementary schools to feed students into those existing middle and high schools.

West Nashville Representative Bo Mitchell, D-Nashville, provided Metro Nashville Public Schools with some eyebrow raising advice on the House floor Thursday.Mitchell suggested the district bulldoze buildings, like the former Hillwood High School campus, before letting public charter schools use them. The district stopped utilizing the Hillwood property as a school when the new James Lawson High School opened last August.

Last school year three groups of Nashville elementary school students who were all performing below grade level, took part in a unique pilot program for mastery-based instruction.The mastery-based approach utilized by participants in the Encompass Community School program is designed to ensure students receive the instruction they need when they need it and for as long as they need it, instead of a traditional approach that uses a predetermined schedule.

More than 15 hundred elementary, middle, and high school students attend one of four Memphis Schools of Excellence in Shelby County.The organization that runs the public charter schools is now hoping to expand the school model to students in south Nashville.The Read Foundation is proposing to serve more than 800 sixth through twelfth-grade students with a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) based education that helps students develop the ability to make good decisions and encourages them to become contributing members of society.

Firefly staff compared each MNPS public charter school’s performance on the Report Card to traditional and magnet schools serving the same age students in the same school cluster. Half of those charters outperformed every comparable district run school in a majority of subjects.

Parents and teachers say a proposal to place new restrictions on public comment at Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education meetings will silence important voices members need to hear.Under current rules, community members who want to speak at board meetings must submit a written request six days before the meeting and speakers receive up to three minutes for their remarks.