County's Schools and Programs Rank Among the State's Best
Children who attend school in Rutherford County get some of the best education available in the state, with a host of innovative programs and accolades to tout.
Cheryl Harris, school/community-relations coordinator for Murfreesboro City Schools – which operates schools for students through sixth grade – was surprised to walk by a kindergarten classroom at Discovery School at Reeves Rogers and hear the students discussing square roots. But that kind of curiosity-driven learning is par for the course at Discovery School, a program for high-achieving students from diverse socioeconomic groups, ethnic backgrounds and neighborhoods all over the district.
“It gives those students the opportunity to be with their high-achieving peers, which raises the bar for everyone in the class,” Harris explains. “We also have the one-to-one laptop initiative, which really helps these kids take their work to the next level.”
Murfreesboro City Schools ranks among the top 10 school systems in the state, Harris says, thanks in large part to its wonderful group of teachers.
“We have had seven teachers in the Tennessee Teachers Hall of Fame, three teachers named Tennessee Teacher of the Year and one in the National Teachers Hall of Fame – Cindy Jones, who currently teaches fourth grade at Discovery School at Reeves Rogers. Last year we had two finalists in the top three for Tennessee Teacher of the Year,” Harris adds.
Other innovative city schools include Hobgood Elementary, a participant in the NASA Explorer Schools program; Bradley Academy, an arts-integrated school; and Bellwood-Bowdoin Preschool, named for early childhood education pioneer and Murfreesboro teacher Ruth Bowdoin.
Rutherford County Schools also gets high marks for quality. In fact, the district earned some of the highest in the state on the Tennessee Department of Education’s 2007 Report Card. Rutherford County Schools also ranked among the region’s best districts in an evaluation of school data conducted by the Nashville Business Journal.
“We are very proud of our system,” says James Evans, spokesman for Rutherford County Schools. “It was neck-and-neck with (the highly regarded) Williamson County and Sumner County school systems in every category evaluated.”
Several schools in the district were singled out for special recognition. The business journal’s ranking named McFadden School of Excellence – a K-8 communications technology magnet – the No. 1 middle school in Middle Tennessee. Eagleville School, the only public pre-K through 12 school in the county, also made the list.
When it comes to preparing students for real-life experiences, the county’s Oakland High School takes a literal approach. The school is one of only 13 high schools in the state to earn International Baccalaureate status.
This huge accomplishment points to the school’s rigorous academic standards and its focus on producing internationally minded graduates, says Lee Rennick, executive director of the Business Education Partnership at the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce.
And Rutherford County Schools was the first district in the state to implement Virtual Enterprise – a hands-on business and commerce education program – in all its high schools.
Numerous private schools also serve Rutherford County families. With an enrollment of more than 700 students, Middle Tennessee Christian School in Murfreesboro is the area’s largest.
