Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools

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Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, or MNPS, is a school district that serves the city of Nashville, Tennessee. Over 74,000 students are currently enolled in the district's 71 elementary schools, 36 middle schools and 15 high schools.

Contents

[edit] History

Metro Nashville Public Schools traces its roots to 1855, when Hume School (now Hume Fogg Academic High School)opened its doors. The district today includes 133 schools, offering instruction from Pre-School through 12th grade, with some high schools also offering college-level credits.

[edit] Academics

More than 99 percent of MNPS teachers meet federal standards in at least one subject, with 93.56 percent of classes taught by a highly qualified instructor. The average teacher experience is 13.0 years at the elementary level, 11.5 years at the middle school level, and 14.0 years at the high school level. A total of 39.83 percent of MNPS teachers have a Bachelors degree, 36.67 percent have a Master's degree, 18.81 percent have Master's plus, and 4.6 percent have a doctorate degree. Current enrollment exceeds 74,000 students, reflecting a diverse spectrum of backgrounds. Students represent 84 countries and speak languages from more than 77 language groups. MNPS currently has three of the five prestigious International Baccalaureate programs in the state of Tennessee and its teachers routinely earn state and national honors for excellence in the classroom.

[edit] School Board

Pedro Garcia was the director of MNPS. Currently, an interim director is in place.

The Board of Education is composed of nine elected members, each serving 4-year terms, and each coming from one of the nine districts in the city.

[edit] Standard School Attire

The school board voted and decided to force the students to wear Standard School Attire (SSA) starting with the 2007-08 school year. No T-shirts, jeans, or hooded sweatshirts are permitted, pants must be blue, black or khaki, and worn with belts, and jackets must have a school logo. The objective of this is to eliminate gang related clothing.

According to the school district, the previous policy on school dress was nearly impossible to enforce. However, one may argue that SSA is not much, if at all, easier to enforce than the previous one. A prime example would be McGavock Comprehensive High School, the district's largest school, where the policy is seldom fully enforced, possibly due to the sheer size of the school's student body. Students are often seen with untucked shirt tails, no belts, and wearing inappropriate outer clothing, such as hooded sweatshirts and jackets with no school logo or coloring. The scene is no different at Hillwood Comprehensive High School where most students strongly disagree with the policy, therefore resisting to comply with it. Many students are suspended an a day to day basis because of not obeying this policy. One good example of this is that many of the halls in Hillwood do not have sufficient heating causing students to wear jackets throughout the school day. Apparently, the policy forbids the wearing of jackets in public schools, causing conflicts between students, staff, and administrators on a daily basis. It has also been said that members of the staff at all metro schools who fail to fully enforce the dress code could lose their job. Still, with the continuing effort to get students to follow the dress code, most schools are still struggling heavily to get the attention of the students.

[edit] External links


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