Metro Nashville Public Schools

An Initiative to Improve Academic Outcomes for All Students

Metro Schools is a diverse, vibrant school system, committed to finding innovative solutions that provide students with the best possible Pre-K-12 experience.

Through Metro Schools' ReimaginED initiative, a comprehensive planning process that seeks to thoroughly review many different types of information - including student academic achievement, current and projected enrollment, building use, programs and staffing - and take that information to reimagine how to best improve academic outcomes for all students, the district is exploring new systems of supports, rebranded and strengthened academic pathways and a focus on cluster climate and culture.

Metro Schools ReimaginED has identified uniform strategies that each cluster will implement alongside its academic programming and student supports. 

Uniform Strategies 

• Intensive, ongoing professional development for teachers 
• Unified cluster leadership structure 
• Cluster support network of internal and external leaders 
• Community partnerships 
• Advocacy Centers in all elementary schools 
• Mentors for teachers and principals 
• Post-secondary opportunities and transition supports 
• Consistent instructional support for literacy 
• Community partnerships for personalized literacy 
• PreK/K-5, 6-8, 9-12 school model 
• SEL + Academics integration 
• Robust instructional technology to support blending learning 

These uniform strategies, coupled with the district’s Focused Outcomes, will mean that MNPS students will receive educational experiences that are robust and rigorous, that allow students to explore their interests, and that create choice for families. Across the district, all MNPS students can expect exposure to all the uniform strategies.  

Hunters Lane, McGavock, and Stratford have started in-depth data dives and cluster collaborations to identify best practices that can be leveraged across clusters and determine academic pathways that reflect each cluster’s strength and diversity.  

Transition Timeline for Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet and MLK @ Head Magnet Middle

• Head Magnet transitioned to the grades 6 to 8 model along with all other magnet middle schools in the 2024-25 school year.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Academic Magnet will transition to a grade 9 to 12 high school in the 2027-2028 school year. 

We have outlined details of upcoming changes at MLK and Head Magnet Middle, including information on enrollment, academics, staffing and more. 

Reimagining 5th Grade at MNPS

Starting in 2021, 5th grade began moving from middle schools to elementary schools with the Pearl-Cohn, Maplewood and Whites Creek clusters.

MNPS data shows 5th-grade students who remain in the elementary setting outperform their peers who are in a middle school setting, and this change would better align MNPS grade levels with state grade band curriculum standards. Additionally, previous engagement efforts show that MNPS parents would like their 5th-grade students to remain in the elementary setting.

The following is the schedule for transition for elementary schools from a Pre-K-4 to a Pre-K-5 model. Some of the transition timelines will be contingent on capital funding allocations to allow for the expansion or replacement of existing schools. Optional middle magnet schools are scheduled to transition to the 6-8 model in 2024-25.

Advocacy Centers 

We have long recognized that our youngest learners need support to help them develop their emotional wellbeing and behavioral regulation strategies. 

An Advocacy Center, then, is a regulation space that employs a structured model designed to support wellness for elementary students who become emotionally or behaviorally dysregulated during the school day and need short-term, trauma-informed and restorative care. Each center will have a coach who has completed extensive training in the use of calming, restorative strategies designed to assist students in regulating their emotions so that they can return to their classroom communities. 

Centers are designed and furnished with materials that support stress reduction and regulation. All elementary schools in the first six ReimaginED clusters and all early-learning centers are in the process of establishing their centers and hiring coaches.

Advocacy Centers have been established in all district elementary schools thanks to investments by Mayor John Cooper, the Metro Council, the Board of Education, and the use of federal ESSER grant funds. 

Learn More About MNPS ReimaginED

Read about Metro Schools ReimaginED.