Nashville schools to phase out grades 7-8 at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School
The Martin Luther King Jr. School, an academic magnet that offers grades 7-12, will phase out its middle school grades by the 2027-28 school year.
The move, announced by Metro Nashville Public Schools last month, is part of the district's ongoing ReimaginED initiative.
Additionally, Head Magnet Middle School will shift from offering grades 5-8 to only grades 6-8 by the 2024-25 school year. One part of the ReimaginED initiative includes moving fifth graders — who have long been folded into the district's middle schools — back into elementary schools. The move is based on national best practices and years of research, MNPS told parents in a Dec. 13 email.
"This shift to a more traditional middle school model is part of our district's ongoing strategy to enhance educational pathways," the email said.
Head Magnet serves as a pathway school to MLK, a sought-after and high-performing magnet school in the district. That means Head Magnet students who meet academic requirements to enroll at MLK are guaranteed a spot. In the 2025-26 school year, the district will rebrand the middle school as MLK at Head Magnet Middle.
While the pathway from Head Magnet to MLK will remain, the changes have sparked controversy among parents, teachers and other school leaders. Here's what to know about the new plan and the debate surrounding it.
What the change means for current, future students
Head Magnet will still serve as a pathway school. However, students won't move to MLK until ninth grade once the phase out plan is complete by the start of the 2027-28 school year.
Students currently enrolled at Head Magnet, along with those starting in the 2024-25 school year, who plan to apply for seventh or eighth grade at MLK will not be impacted by the change, according to MNPS.
MNPS families were sent an email on Dec. 13 explaining the plans for Head Magnet and MLK. District and school staff were made aware of the plan ahead of time.
Timeline for changes at MLK, Head
Elisa Norris, who oversees strategy and performance for the district, presented a timeline during a Jan. 9 meeting with the MNPS Board of Education. Here's how it breaks down:
Phase 1 / 2024-25 school year: Head becomes 6-8 with increased seats at all grade levels. MLK remains 7-12.
Phase 2 / 2025-26 school year: Head remains 6-8. MLK remains 7-12. Rebranding starts for MLK at Head Magnet Middle.
Phase 3 / 2026-27 school year: Head remains 6-8. MLK becomes 8-12.
Phase 4 / 2027-28 school year: Head remains 6-8. MLK becomes 9-12 with increased seats at all grade levels.
Why not just add middle school to MLK?
MNPS Director Adrienne Battle fielded questions from MNPS Board of Education members during the board's regular meeting on Dec. 12.
Board member Abigail Tylor, who represents District 9, asked if district leaders considered simply adding sixth grade to MLK instead of removing seventh and eighth grade.
Battle said the decision took years of study and recommendations on best practices into account, along with leveraging limited resources while maximizing capacity. She also said aligning Head Magnet with the rest of the district's Pre-K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 grade level models also made more sense.
Battle assured the board that current seventh and eighth grade teachers at MLK will be given preference on where they want to go as the phase out unfolds. She said she and other district leaders have made plans carefully and are mindful of mitigating the impact the change will have on students, staff and parents.
"We’re going to take care of our people," she said.
An appeal to reconsider
Two MLK employees voiced concerns to Battle and the board during a regular Jan. 9 meeting.
Sarah Laos, who works as a student counselor at MLK, asked Battle and the board to reconsider phasing out seventh and eighth grade at her school. She said both grades have room for around 300 more students, meaning they could easily add sixth grade. She also pointed to the fact that the high school has not had a waitlist for over five years, while the seventh and eighth grade waitlist at MLK had 76 students as of August.
"There's clearly a demand for middle school academic magnet seats that MLK is unable to accommodate," Laos said.
Michael Bartus, who teaches German at MLK and chairs its world language program, said the middle school is an integral part of MLK. The school currently offers French, German, Latin, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish courses as early as seventh grade.
He was concerned over the lack of a plan to continue those offerings once seventh and eighth grade phased out at MLK. Aside from Spanish, those language offerings would not begin until students reach MLK in ninth grade.
"Research strongly supports the earlier a student begins their studies, the more likely they are to succeed in developing intermediate and advanced proficiency in the language of their choice," Bartus said. "Were the middle school to be dissolved, there is no question in my mind that this would negatively impact the language courses available to our students."
In its Dec. 13 email to parents, MNPS said it was dedicated to keeping rigorous and advanced academic offerings between both Head Magnet and MLK.
“We want to definitely not lose anything that’s working for our students and our staff and our families," Battle said in the Dec. 12 meeting.
The district will also offer multiple opportunities for families, staff and other stakeholders to discuss academic programming and student experiences throughout the phase-in process. More information on the ReimaginED initiative can be found at mnps.org/learn/supporting_our_students.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville schools: MLK Jr. Magnet to phase out grades 7-8 by 2027
