MNPS cites national-level gains on Harvard/Stanford education recovery scorecard

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools reported measurable post-pandemic learning gains Monday after district leaders presented findings from the Education Recovery Scorecard, a collaborative analysis by the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard and the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford.

"Our students and educators have demonstrated remarkable resilience, and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools has emerged as a national leader in academic recovery," Director Doctor Battle said as she introduced the district's summary of the scorecard and related National Assessment of Educational Progress results.

The scorecard compares districts using a common scale tied to NAEP (the National Assessment of Educational Progress) and expresses recovery as ‘‘grade-level’’ progress. Doctor Paul Changus, who presented the technical overview, told the board the study used data from 43 states and more than 8,700 school districts and used 2022 as the post-pandemic baseline because 2021 data were uneven across states. "This is a collaborative effort between Harvard and Stanford," Changus said, explaining the study's methodology.

Key findings presented to the board: MNPS ranked fourth among the 100 largest urban school districts in the nation for mathematics recovery since 2022 (about 0.69 grade levels, roughly two-thirds of a grade level) and ninth for reading/recovery (about 0.24 grade levels, roughly one-quarter of a grade level). By contrast, the national averages reported in the same analysis were substantially lower: roughly 0.11 grade levels in math and a decline in reading over the last two years in the national aggregate. Tennessee's statewide gains were reported at about 0.36 grade levels in math and 0.13 in reading; MNPS' reported gains exceeded those state averages.

Presenters cautioned that the pandemic’s effects were uneven. The scorecard shows larger setbacks and slower recovery in districts with higher shares of economically disadvantaged students; the district presentation noted that achievement gaps remain and that higher-income districts were more likely to have recovered. Director Battle and Changus emphasized that federally funded pandemic relief (ESSER) and targeted local initiatives — including investments in high-quality instructional materials, leadership development, targeted tutoring and the district’s Scholars Portfolio — were cited in the report as contributing to recovery.

Board members asked for additional materials and the underlying charts. Changus said NAEP provides the only national common scale and that MNPS can supply the district-level charts and disaggregations; he identified 28 MNPS schools that were in the NAEP 2024 sample. Board members also probed whether the district’s progress predated 2022; presenters said local data show recovery activity beginning earlier, and that MNPS made gains in 2022 as well.

The presentation listed several district strategies the presenters and researchers recommended other districts continue or expand: sustained academic catch-up programs (for example, high-dosage tutoring), stronger attendance efforts to reduce chronic absenteeism, clear communications to parents when children are not at grade level, and ongoing local evaluation partnerships (MNPS cited collaborations with Vanderbilt University and internal rapid-response research). The superintendent and board members framed those steps as critical to converting short-term relief spending into long-term operating investments.

Board members praised classroom teachers, principals and system leaders for the gains and requested that MNPS make the report’s data and the district’s charts available to the public and to elected officials to support future funding decisions.

The board took no formal vote on the report; presenters said they would provide the detailed charts and data visualizations to board members and publish links to the scorecard materials for public review.