Outstanding schools recognize and emphasize the role
of the family in a student’s academic success. Rose Park
Math and Science Magnet Middle School has taken the
concept of family support to a new level, creating an environment in which every student feels nurtured as part
of an “educational family.” In both literal and symbolic
ways, these education families and each student’s home
family set the stage for the pursuit of high academic
goals and provide encouragement, strength, and support as the student aspires to reach those goals.
SCHOOL Profile
Principal – Robert Blankenship
Grades served – 5-8
Enrollment – 395
Economically disadvantaged students – 61%
White – 26%
African American – 64%
Hispanic – 6%
Other – 4%
Attendance rate – 97%
TVAAS growth estimates
Math: 5.7
Reading: 2.0
TCAP Proficient/Advanced
Math: 47%
Reading: 57%
Between 2010 and 2012, the achievement gap
for African American students narrowed by 11.4
percentage points in reading and 16.2 percentage
points in math. For Hispanic students, the gap
narrowed by 9.8 points and 7.1 points, respectively,
and for economically disadvantaged students by
4.9 and 9.9 points.
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Pathways to the Prize
Lessons from the 2012 SCORE Prize School Winners
Located in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School
district, Rose Park—a magnet school that is open to
students citywide—prides itself on a set of values and
beliefs, including:
• Learning is a cooperative effort involving the entire
school community.
• Decision-making should be informed by administrators, teachers, parents, and students.
• Rules, regulations, and procedures must be clearly
communicated and consistently enforced.
• Students learn better when the classroom content
includes higher order questioning and thinking, teachers and students respect different learning styles, and
differentiated instruction addresses students’ multiple
intelligences.
• All members of the school community should have
high expectations of themselves and of others.
These values emerge not only in the school’s philosophy, but in the explicit strategies the school uses to
support students and their families. For example, the
school’s mission calls for active and interactive learning
grounded in hands-on classroom activities. The members of a student’s education family approach their
work accordingly, with the school providing the physical
resources—such as science and computer labs—that
allow students, in both content-specific and interdisciplinary ways, to be active learners. The commitment to
building a support system around every child reflects
the school’s absolute belief that “all kids can grow, even
the advanced ones who might not think they need to,”
said Rose Park Principal Robert Blankenship.