Resources
Our reporting and data demonstrate how we intend to change the education narrative in Nashville and highlight opportunities where we can advocate for change in our schools.
Designing the Future: How Measuring and Mapping Student Opportunities in Nashville Can Improve Outcomes for Kids
Our newest policy brief explores how measuring and mapping data about student experiences in and out of school is critical to informing policies and practices that help ensure all Nashville’s children and youth thrive. In the brief, we call for a Nashville Children and Youth Opportunity Index and recommend the school district build on its Equity Roadmap by regularly reporting on equity metrics.Download Brief
By Design: How Nashville Created and Sustains Inequities in our Schools
Our policy brief further unpacks how city structures and systems prevent low-income students and students of color from thriving. The brief outlines specific policies and decisions in our city's history - such as housing and zoning decisions - that have established, exacerbated, and continue to perpetuate inequities for students and families.Download Brief
The Limitations of Desegregation in Nashville's Public Schools
Our new, condensed version of the full documentary focuses specifically on the failings on desegregation-era policies in Nashville. This resource offers a 22-minute option for screenings where a shorter or more specific showing is desired.Watch Film
The Limitations of Desegregation in Nashville's Public Schools: Watch Guide
Our new Watch Guide accompanies the 22-minute condensed documentary by Design: The Limitations of Desegregation in Nashville's Public Schools. This resource facilitates solutions-driven conversations about the film and our collective role in designing a future that ensures all students thrive.Download Guide
2022 Bridge to Completion report
This is the fifth in a series of reports completed in partnership between the Nashville Public Education Foundation and the Tennessee College Access and Success Network. The report analyzes MNPS graduate data to identify trends in college enrollment, persistence, and attainment, as well as makes recommendations for how the city and state can improve and align supports for graduates to improve postsecondary attainment. The report also includes profiles detailing graduates' college-going for each MNPS high school.Download Report
Infographic: Why TISA Should Adjust for Districts' High Labor Costs
Nashville is an expensive place to live and work. The state's school funding formula should account for that. Our infographic breaks down how a Cost Differential Factor (CDF) could help appropriately account for Nashville's high labor costs and ensure the state's new funding formula could better meet our students' needs.Download Infographic
Infographic: How TISA Affects MNPS
The state's new funding formula makes some much needed improvements to the way our schools are funded, but also presents challenges for Nashville's schools. Our infographic breaks down how TISA affects funding in MNPS.Download Infographic
Webinar: Continuing the Conversation - Inequities of the Nashville Youth Experience
Watch our webinar from December 8, 2021 featuring Dr. Maury Nation, Johari Matthews, Kasar Abdulla, and Vanessa Lazón. This conversation focuses on how our community can come together to shape how we prioritize children and youth across our diverse city, and explores how our city's systems, structures, and resources affect children and youth in the classroom and beyond.Watch Webinar
2021 Annual Report
Our annual report shows our work in 2021 towards our mission of every student thriving in school each day. Read the report to learn more about how and why we advocate for change, promote excellence and innovation, support MNPS, and convene stakeholders to drive community solutions.Download Report
By Design: Action Guide
We created this Action Guide to accompany our documentary By Design: The Shaping of Nashville's Public Schools. Use this resource to discover how you can take action to ensure every child has what they need to thrive in school each day.Download Guide
By Design: Watch Guide
We created this Watch Guide to accompany our documentary By Design: The Shaping of Nashville's Public Schools. Use this resource as a starting point to lead a discussion with a group of family, friends, coworkers, or others in your community after watching the film.Download Guide
Advocacy Agenda
Our advocacy agenda focuses on two areas: school conditions and city and state systems. We believe collective action in both of these focus areas is crucial to eliminating inequities and barriers to educational experiences so that all students thrive.Download Agenda
By Design: The Shaping of Nashville's Public Schools
By Design: The Shaping of Nashville's Public Schools has been produced by NPEF in collaboration with education experts, leading historians, community and state leaders, and students from defining moments in Nashville’s public-school history dating back to the 1800s.Watch Trailer
Watch Film
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Bridge to Completion 2021
The 2021 Bridge to Completion report analyzes MNPS graduate data to identify trends in college enrollment, persistence, and attainment. The report makes several recommendations to improve the supports and opportunities for students to succeed in college and career, with an added lens of the effects on college-going of the COVID-19 pandemic.Download Report
Infographic: Attending school in a fully funded district
Imagine with us: What would it look like to attend school in a fully funded district? Our infographic explores the possibilities of what full funding would provide our students and families and how it would ensure all students thrive in school. What does a fully funded district look like to you?Download Infographic
Infographic: Teaching in a fully funded district
Imagine with us: What would it look like to teach in a fully funded district? Our infographic explores the possibilities of what full funding would provide our district's educators and the impact for students and families. What does a fully funded district look like to you?Download Infographic
Ideas In Action: Spotlight on Possip
Ideas in Action is a series spotlighting innovative practices and strategies to take beyond the COVID era. This edition highlights Possip, a Nashville-based company MNPS expanded use of in order to get regular feedback from families and include them as partners during COVID-19 and beyond.Read the Spotlight
Ideas In Action: Spotlight on Navigator
Ideas in Action is a series spotlighting innovative practices and strategies to take beyond the COVID era. This edition highlights Navigator a district initiative to help maintain relationships with students and families during and virtual learning while connecting them to vital resources.Read the Spotlight
Funding Our Schools: How Tennessee's Funding Formula Fails to Meet the Needs of Nashville's Students
Read our informational Policy Brief detailing what the BEP is, the challenges the current funding formula presents, and its significant consequences for our district, schools, and students.Download the Brief
Ideas In Action: Spotlight on Nearpod
Ideas In Action is a series spotlighting innovative practices and strategies to take beyond the COVID era. This edition highlights Nearpod, an online tool to help make lessons engaging and interactive which has been a game-changer for several Overton High School teachers.Read the Spotlight
Infographic: Education Funding Glossary
View our infographic to learn the definitions of key terms related to the funding of our city's public schools, such as BEP, fiscal capacity, and Student-Based Budgeting.Download Infographic
Infographic: How Are Our Schools Funded?
View our infographic to learn about what BEP (Basic Education Plan) is and how it affects education funding in our state and city.Download Infographic
Webinar: Exceptional Education in MNPS
Watch our webinar from January 27, 2021 titled "Exceptional Education in MNPS: How do we support our special education students to thriving?" with a panel featuring educator, family, and student voice.Watch Webinar
2020 Progress Report
Read our 2020 Progress Report to learn about our work as conveners, collaborators, and investors towards our goals: supporting teachers and leaders, celebrating success, and advocating for change.Download Report
Thriving Schools Advocacy Guide
This resource provides guidance on how we can collectively work together to create schools where all kids thrive. The guide includes a checklist for each of NPEF's Thriving Schools Framework conditions as well as a list of things you can do today to create a thriving school.Download Guide
SAMPLE: Op-Ed
Use this sample op-ed to write your own piece advocating for increasing teacher pay or another important public education issue and send it to your local newspaper or other news source to be published.Download Template
SAMPLE: Letter to a Metro Council Member
Use this sample letter to write your own letter to a member of the Metro Council advocating for increasing teacher pay or another important public education issue.Download Template
Infographic: Who Makes Decisions About Our Schools?
This infographic provides information on the roles played by local and state government and other stakeholders related to public education in Nashville.Download Infographic
Webinar: Inequities of the Nashville Youth Experience
Watch our webinar from June 30, 2020 titled A City Where All Youth Thrive: A Conversation about Dismantling the Inequities of the Nashville Youth Experience led by Dr. Maury Nation from Vanderbilt University.Watch Webinar
Webinar: Navigating COVID-19 as an English Learner in MNPS
Watch our webinar from September 23, 2020 titled Navigating COVID-19 as an English Learner in MNPS: Community Perspectives on Supporting Students and Families with a panel of those working closest with Nashville's EL students and families.Watch Webinar
Bridge to Completion 2020
This is the third in a series of reports that analyze college-going data of MNPS graduates and use that data to understand the barriers affecting college completion in our city and make recommendations on how to eliminate them.Download Report
Bridge to Completion 2019
This report goes beyond 2018 report data by digging into the student pipeline across race and ethnicity and across district schools to better highlight opportunities to increase college completion.Download Report
Bridge to Completion 2018
This report takes a look into the challenges and barriers that high school and college students face, and suggests a community effort to bring up Nashville’s college-going and college-completion rates to the national average.Download Report
A Framework for Thriving Schools
Our Thriving Schools Framework explores the conditions necessary to create thriving schools and explains how the presence of these conditions leads to increased student performance and agency.Download Report
Citywide Poll 2020
NPEF conducted a citywide poll in August 2020 on to assess public opinion on key education topics, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Nashville voters underscored potential for public schools and articulated needs for disadvantaged communities.Download Release
NPEF Inequities Brief
This brief includes our recommendations for identifying and dismantling the inequities baked into our schools and communities that prevent too many of our students from thriving.Download Report
Strategic Plan Overview
This framework is centered around the vision of what it would be like if every child in Nashville were thriving in our schools every day. We aim to support teachers and leaders to build schools where all kids thrive.Download Report
Blueprint for Early Childhood Success
The Blueprint combines the thought leadership of community groups, volunteer partners, parents, students and educators to create a framework that will prevent any child or family from slipping through the cracks.Download Report
