Need insight into this particular elementary school and overall school rankings (Franklin: apartment, how much)

[Irishfan72]

Our family has been living in a Nashville apartment for three months and are ready to buy a house in the Nashville area. We have narrowed our area search down to Brentwood, Franklin and a couple of areas in Davidson County.

My wife and I both work in downtown Nashville so woould really like to avoid a long commute but want a good elementary school.

During our search, we saw that Granbery Elementary (located in Brentwood-Davidson County) was ranked high in the state for elementary schools. Can anyone tell me if Granbery is a good school and how does it stack up against some of the Williamson County elementary schools?

In addition, where are some good websites to get TN school rankings and demographic data?

Thanks

[nashvols]

I went to Granberry in the early 90s...it was a great school then. I don't know how much has changed over the years...but this area has really grown up. I'm not surprised that it is listed as one of the better schools in the state.

How it stacks up to the WCS probably varies from school to school. The WCS have a high reputation to begin with, and MNPS do not...however, it doesn't mean that there aren't a number of very good elementary schools in town.

Personally, I think success in schools depends greatly on the parents and teachers...not just the school's reputation. I think you would be just fine sending your kid to Granberry.

I've also heard that Oliver Middle School is pretty decent as well. I don't know this as fact, though.

I think a lot of the complaints of Metro's school system begin in middle school and continue into high school. Overton, Granberry's zoned HS, is very average. Probably in the better half of Metro's high schools...but nothing to write home about.

My question to you would be what are your plans for after your child exits elementary school? A lot of things can change over the course of the years...some schools may get better, and others worse. The Overton cluster is somewhat of a mixed bag, with a pretty nice western and southern side, and somewhat of a transitional northern and eastern side (the Nolensville Rd corridor). It's hard to say what the dynamics of the neighborhood will mean to the overall district. If things got worse at Overton, would you consider moving, or possibly a private school? Or are you even thinking that far ahead at this point?

Btw, here's a link to the Overton Cluster.

http://www.mnps.org/AssetFactory.aspx?did=35828

Oh, and commute times (depending on where you are, of course) should be between 25-35 minutes to downtown (driveway to parking lot). It all depends on how messed up Old Hickory Blvd is on a particular morning, though.

[BirdieBelle]

Granbery is one of the more desirable Davidson County elementary schools. You can find state statistics about it here:

Tennessee Department of Education - Report Card - Achievement

As with many of the Williamson County Schools, the achievement scores are very high, but value-added scores are frighteningly low. That's a number that measures how much students learn in one year. It usually means the kids already come to school smart, and it's harder to show a whole year's worth of academic gain if you're already a bit above grade level.

You can change the school systems and individual schools at the top of the Report Card page and look at individual Williamson County schools. In comparison to Edmondson, for example, which is relatively nearby to Granbery, the value-added scores at Edmondson are higher.

Still, Granbery is a great school. I have a friend who teaches there and loves it, and many friends with kids who go there. It's a great school community.

As with a lot of Metro parents, you may need to make a difficult choice in 5th grade between slim hopes for magnet school lottery, your zoned school, Oliver Middle which has fairly low achievement scores, or private school.

[Irishfan72]

Appreciate the insight Nashvols and would agree that a significant part of the success equation depends on the teachers and parents. As far as past elementary schools, we don't currently have any designs to attend private school so it would be a question of do we want to move again in 6-7 years as we would not be interesed in attending the middle school Granbery feeds into; but then again, this could change. Personally, we have never been in a house more than 6 years and buying the "life house" seems a little too planned for me with how things can change.

It is always the question of balancing finances, commutes, lifestyle and kids interests, isn't it?

Anyway, thanks for the thoughts.

[Irishfan72]

Thanks Wsmn4life.....checked out your link and it is very helpful. Good to especially see the demographics as we would like our kids to be a part of a more diverse environment than where we moved from.

Not sure where we will go at this point but appreciate the insight. When we first moved here, everyone said you have to be in Williamson for the schools but it is good to see there are other areas with good schools.

Thanks

[susansong]

Check out GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community.

They give Granbery a rating of 9 out of 10 based on test scores.

Most of the Williamson County elementary schools such as Crockett, Lipscomb, etc are rated 10 out of 10.

As a graduate of Overton HS, I would not recommend the school. Note that it's rated only a 4 out of 10. Although there were some good teachers, most weren't that great or were downright awful. In biology, for example, we would watch old filmstrips at least three days a week. When I took Biology 101 in college, most of my classmates thought it was an easy review class but I had to learn everything from scratch. In government, we would fill in a map of the 50 states once a week and the rest of the week was a study hall. It was a joke.