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How do district leaders and researchers come together to solve Nashville’s biggest education challenges? At this year’s NashvillePeer Fall Working Group Convening, leaders from Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and researchers from Vanderbilt University gathered to plan, reflect, and set bold goals for the school year.
Building on the strong foundation laid in last year’s convening, MNPS Director of Schools, Dr. Adrienne Battle, joined members of the NashvillePeer Steering Committee, MNPS executive leadership, and cross-organization project teams for an interactive lunch that sparked rich discussion around critical questions facing the district. These conversations laid the groundwork for deeper afternoon sessions where each working group reflected on past successes, identified challenges, and charted their learning and impact goals for the 2025–26 school year and beyond.
Anchored in collaborative planning and impact-driven goals—this year’s convening included several exciting new elements that deepened engagement, expanded the reach of the work, and responded to the needs of our growing network:
Record Attendance
This year saw a significant increase in participation with newly launched working groups and a joint lunch with MNPS executive leadership members and NashvillePeer’s steering committee, reflecting growing momentum and interest in the collaborative work of the partnership.
Strategic Visioning Lunch Session
A new interactive lunch session with MNPS Cabinet members, the NashvillePeer steering committee, and working groups sparked rich dialogue around district priorities and potential directions of one of our signature research initiatives – the rapid response study series.
Leveraging Cabinet Study Sessions
Working groups used their afternoon planning time to lay the groundwork for upcoming presentations to MNPS executive leadership. This approach ensures their findings directly inform district-level decisions, while also sparking conversations about deeper engagement across the MNPS Support Hub and strategies to better connect with school and community leaders positioned to act on the research.
Each team framed its planning around an impact statement—a vision for how its research can lead to meaningful change for MNPS students. These statements keep the focus on student outcomes, educator support, and system improvement.
Postsecondary Readiness Working Group
The Postsecondary Readiness Working Group works across three different teams – one that uses multiple forms of data to understand factors affecting EPSO participation, completion, and success, another that works directly with three partner high schools to co-design and test interventions for improving student participation in EPSOs, and one that works with community members to provide and thought partnership on the EPSO research. The teams include:
Research and Analytics: Collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data to build an evidence base on EPSO participation, completion, and success in MNPS that will inform the district and other working group teams.
School and District Improvement Network: Partnering to improve school-level processes and outcomes, through co-design and other work focused on student recruitment, staffing, and delivery of EPSO opportunities for all students.
Community Engagement: Engage a community advisory panel to strengthen working group research and learning by posing questions and contributing a range of perspectives on opportunities and challenges to the path to postsecondary readiness in MNPS.
Student Absenteeism Working Group
Identify points of intervention and offer recommendations for the district that will improve attendance policies and processes.
Youth Success & Wellbeing Working Group
Ensure that all students have access to a rigorous and supportive education environment by bringing together citywide partners to articulate a framework for shared accountability and continued partner engagement.
Supporting Educators Working Group
Improve student outcomes and reduce variability by positively impacting teacher practice in mathematics and ELA through coherent, effective leadership practices.
Positive School Climate Working Group
Implement consistent, clearly messaged strategies that strengthen personal competencies for students and adults, promote positive school climate, and lead to measurable gains in academic and behavioral outcomes (Note: this is a working draft).
What makes NashvillePeer unique is its collaborative research model designed to produce more relevant, applicable research that informs district and school policy and practice. Comprised of members from both Vanderbilt University and MNPS, each working group moves through a cycle of:
This year, each working group will share key learnings with MNPS executive leadership to make sense of results together, and design frameworks for addressing challenges and carrying out action plans for how learning can be applied in schools and across the district.
As these working groups carry out their plans, they will engage key constituents including students, teachers, administrators, counselors, families, and community partners in meaningful ways. The goal is simple but powerful: to turn research into action that makes a lasting difference for Nashville’s students.
Stay connected with NashvillePeer for updates on this important work and opportunities to engage with us going forward.
We want you to learn more about what we do and why we do it. We invite you to sign up to receive updates to learn how you be part of our work.