Nashville, TN

AISR has been providing technical assistance to the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) reform effort since our work there began with a meta-review in 2009. Currently, the technical assistance arm of the Nashville work is primarily focused on improving the effectiveness of central office and achieving student success through effective teaching.

AISR research staff are in the second year of a two-and-a-half-year documentation and evaluation of MNPS Achieves – aimed at developing leadership for transformational change – which is part of a major, multi-pronged reform effort launched by Director of Schools Jesse Register. AISR published a report in September 2010 with a detailed description of the reform to date and implications for MNPS. AISR has continued to monitor the reform effort, providing ongoing formative feedback. The focus of our research is on three overarching questions: In what ways are the MNPS Achieves reforms transformational? Are the reforms being implemented coherently? In what ways are the reforms achieving scale?