Metro Nashville Public Schools

Blue Ribbon Teacher Designation 

Honoring excellent teaching in Nashville's schools.

The Blue Ribbon Teacher award has a storied legacy – one that honors and uplifts the incredible work our teachers do across the district every year. 

It is a season when our community comes together to celebrate teaching that changes lives and creates futures.

As we, alongside our partners the Nashville Public Education Foundation and Nashville’s Agenda, look ahead to the future of this award designation, we're changing it just a little bit. This new process continues to honor excellent teaching but streamlines the application for our eligible teachers. Rather than an annual award teachers can apply for, Blue Ribbon Teacher will now be a designation earned for consecutive years of teaching excellence.

Here's what the new process will look like this year:

• Eligible teachers will be invited to apply for a Blue Ribbon Teacher designation later this summer in July (2022). 
• Teachers who are invited to apply will submit one personal statement and a statement of endorsement from their principal. There are no other pieces of content to submit, and a community panel will still make final award designations.
• Eligible teachers include those who:
  
  • Have been a full-time teacher in an MNPS-run school or MNPS charter school for at least 4 years, and
  • Have an average observation score of 4.75 or greater over the last three evaluation years (excluding the 2019-2020 school year), and
  • Haven’t previously been named a Blue Ribbon Teacher
• Fifty extraordinary educators will be honored in the fall.