Julia Green Elementary School, nestled in tony Green Hills, is the envy of Nashville’s primary schools. Except in one area. Last year, the perennial high achiever got the equivalent of a cold slap: Poor children and students of color at the school were being left behind in droves.
In 2014, the state rapped Julia Green for having one of the largest achievement gaps in the state for minority and poor students compared to the rest of their peers. The year before, 35.6 percent of Julia Green students from low-income families passed the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test. That means only slightly more than a third — as opposed to 84.2 percent of their financially comfortable peers.
Worse, while 82.4 percent of white Julia Green third-graders scored at least on grade level, only 21.7 percent of their African-American, Hispanic or Native American peers accomplished the same.
“Julia Green certainly has the perception of being in Green Hills [and] Belle Meade, but we do pull from the Edgehill community, too,” said Andrew Davis, a third-year principal at Julia Green. “I was kind of shocked at the amount of the achievement gap between those groups when you compare it to all students, and specifically white students. It was a significant gap.” (continue reading at NashvilleScene)