Best public elementary schools in and around Nashville?

April 20, 2009 6:20 PM

Where are the best public elementary schools in and around Nashville, TN?

My husband and I, and another couple (the husband of which my husband is going into business with), are moving to Nashville this summer. We'd like to live relatively close to each other. Our friends have a five-year-old who is starting school in September, and so wherever we live has to have good elementary schools. We'd rather not live outside Nashville, since the clients our husbands will be working with will be mostly in Nashville, and we'd like to keep travel to a minimum if possible. We've lived there before, and are familiar with the area, but never paid any attention to the schools there.

We'd like to live in an area that has good elementary schools, but is also a relatively fun place for young couples, and isn't too expensive to live in. People who I've asked about this have recommended Williamson County schools as being the best bet, but we can't afford Brentwood and anywhere else seems a bit too far away from Nashville. So, I'm wondering if all Davidson County public schools are really that bad, or if there are areas or individual schools which are good?

posted by joannemerriam to education (4 comments total)

i grew up in nashville and live there now. no kids, but people around me have 'em. for good public schools, williamson county is the better choice, but in davidson, there are some good public schools, mostly available by lottery. i can't remember the names of them, but there's one in east nashville, and another that has a bilingual spanish/english curriculum (glendale).

as far as private schools go, east academy may be affordable, and you might look into university school of nashville, which provides financial aid to a good chunk of its students.
posted by thinkingwoman at 6:34 PM on April 20

Percy Priest and Julia Green schools are the two best public elementary schools. My sister went to Julia Green (which I believe was just renovated) and went on to get into a nice private local high school and get a full academic scholarship to a private college.

Most of the public schools suck but there are exceptions.
posted by aburd at 9:31 PM on April 20

I don't know how to say this delicately, so I'll just say it out right. There are many, many public schools in this country that are fantastic, but have a "bad reputation" because of the students they serve. A lot of times, when people say schools are bad, they are not saying anything about the quality of the education there, they just mean they have a lot of students who are not wealthy and/or white.

This has been my experience both growing up in an urban school system and as a volunteer in one now.

Your friends will never go wrong by visiting schools in prospective neighborhoods and seeing what they're like.
posted by hydropsyche at 4:05 AM on April 21

You might also look at Rutherford County. This from a former Murfreesboro teacher. The 'boro and county have been flooding cash into brand new school facilities and the school system is pretty good. It's a college town which means there is a lot of interaction between the University and the schools.

Murfreesboro is about half an hour from downtown Nash-vegas.
posted by Pollomacho at 6:12 AM on April 21