Mayor's Office of Children and Youth
Mission
To work in partnership with public and private entities to ensure that all of Nashville's children are healthy, safe, successful in school, and connected to caring adults, allowing them the opportunity to contribute to the progress of our city.
MNPS Kindergarten Transition Guide
Children entering kindergarten must be registered during the week of March 26 to 30. Children must be 5 years old on or before Sept. 30, 2012. Mayor Dean encourages parents to read to their children every day to help prepare them for kindergarten. Read more to find out where to register and how to help your kindergartener be ready for the first day of school.
Early Childhood Development & Education
In the fall of 2010, Mayor Karl Dean formed an advisory council led by Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors to specifically identify and address the needs and gaps in service for Nashville-Davidson County’s youngest children. Recognizing that the early years are the most critical for a child’s healthy brain and body development, and that they play a very influential role for subsequent student success during the K-12 years, the committee delivered a report to Mayor Dean in the spring of 2011 focusing on seven priority areas of improvement. In addition, the committee established an important vision for all of Nashville-Davidson County’s youngest children.
NAZA
In May 2009 Mayor Karl Dean launched the Nashville After Zone Alliance (NAZA) in partnership with Metro Nashville Public Schools to fulfill his commitment to develop a coordinated system of afterschool programming for middle school students in Nashville. NAZA is a network of established afterschool providers, each operating in a different geographic zone and with its own particular focus and mission. Each After Zone or Z. provides under-served middle-school students access to afterschool programs that offer meaningful enrichment activities in safe and structured environments. To learn more, visit: http://nashvillez.org.
Adult Literacy
The creation of an Adult Literacy Coordinator position in the Mayor’s Office is a direct result of the Community Needs Assessment for Adult Literacy that the Nashville Chamber’s Public Benefit Foundation released in early 2010. The Dollar General Literacy Foundation commissioned the study, which found that a large number of adult Davidson County residents lack basic reading and comprehension skills and many do not possess a high school diploma or GED certificate. In addition, there is a growing number of ELL adults that need access to the proper supports and learning opportunities to acquire English language proficiency.
Adult Literacy is an important issue for the personal opportunity and dignity of many of Nashville-Davidson County’s residents as well as a critical issue facing many local businesses. Local economic development and local businesses depend on a skilled and literate workforce.
One of the study’s key recommendations was to identify a central coordinating entity for adult education and literacy services in Davidson County. As a result, Mayor Dean created a position in the Mayor’s Office of Children and Youth in partnership with the Dollar General Foundation to work on adult literacy and help coordinate the efforts of the many non-profits working on adult literacy every day in Nashville-Davidson County. For more information, you can contact the Adult Literacy Coordinator at Hunter.Schimpff@nashville.gov.
Children and Youth Master Plan
On February 10, 2010, Mayor Karl Dean convened the first meeting of the Mayor’s Task Force charged with developing a Child and Youth Master Plan for Nashville and Davidson County. The Task Force consisted of more than 50 Nashville leaders from all sectors of the community including youth and was chaired by Metro Councilman At-Large Ronnie Steine, Renata Soto of Conexion Americas, and Jairus Cater a senior at Martin Luther King Magnet High School. Per Mayor Dean’s charge, the Child and Youth Master Plan will “provide a roadmap for Nashville/Davidson County to connect our children and youth with needed resources thereby allowing all of our children to thrive. The master plan will also serve as a vehicle to align various constituencies in a collective process in order to establish countywide priorities. These priorities will allow for the establishment of directed initiatives and interventions reflective of the community’s larger needs and allow for targeted funding in order to achieve said priorities.” After six months of work, the task force completed Nashville’s first-ever Children and Youth Master Plan.
Nashville Education Summit
Leaders in education reform across the country came together in Nashville on Aug. 14, 2009 for a day-long discussion on how significant improvement is being made in some of the nation’s most challenging urban schools. Mayor Karl Dean hosted this unprecedented event on the campus of Vanderbilt University to engage the local community and set the stage for Nashville to become the next major city to embrace aggressive education reform. The Nashville Education Summit was attended by representatives from nonprofits, the faith-based community, parents, neighborhood leaders, business leaders and elected officials. U.S. Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education Jim Shelton, who serves under Secretary Arne Duncan, delivered the keynote address. Other speakers included Michelle Rhee, chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools, and Dennis Walcott, deputy mayor of New York City.
Teacher Compensation Forum
Mayor Karl Dean and Dr. Jesse Register, Director of Metro Nashville Public Schools, co-hosted a Teacher Compensation Forum Aug. 7, 2009 to begin a community dialogue on effective strategies and models tied to teacher pay. Paying teachers based on a predetermined set of performance measures is gaining increasing attention as a way to improve the quality of teaching. The forum consisted of speakers and panelists from both the public and private sector with expertise in the areas of teacher compensation and teacher effectiveness. The forum brought together all interested parties to help Metro Nashville begin to explore the creation and implementation of an effective pay-for-performance program. Attendees of the event included teachers, school administrators, and representatives from the business community, state and local government. The forum was sponsored by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce Education 2020 Speaker Series.
Mayor's Advisory Council on Special Education
The Mayor’s Advisory Council on Special Education will assess the strengths and weaknesses of existing programs and policies for students who are identified as receiving special education services through the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) system. The advisory council will use the assessments to make objective recommendations to the mayor as they pertain to the overall educational experiences of those students.
Operation Graduation & Beyond
The Mayor's Office and Alignment Nashville hosted the first countywide graduation summit in partnership with 11 other community organizations on Feb. 1, 2008. The day-long event includes a keynote address by Nettie Legters, a research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Organization of Schools. Facilitated work groups at the end of the day compiled comments and ideas from attendees and reported them back to the members of Mayor Karl Dean's Project for Student Success task force.
Project for Student Success
In December 2007, Mayor Karl Dean convened a 40-member task force called Project for Student Success to develop ways to reduce the number of students dropping out of Metro Nashville Public Schools. The task force sub-divided into four groups, each focused on one of the four key factors research has shown to influence a student's decision to dropout: student risk factors, chronic poor academic performance, family and parental roles, and community risk factors. After six months of work, the task force presented its recommendations to Mayor Dean on June 25, 2008.
Town Hall Meetings on Education
Mayor Karl Dean held a series of Town Hall Meetings throughout Davidson County to talk to you -- parents, teachers, students and other concerned citizens -- about how to improve our public schools. The list of past meetings and a form to submit your ideas and concerns is available online.