Organizational Assessment: Reframing Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS)

Ruben E. De Pena
Fort Hays State University

LDRS 800 Organizational Leadership

Curt Brungardt
October 31, 20013

Organizational Assessment

Organizational Assessment: Reframing Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS)

Introduction
This work will assess Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), one of the largest
public school districts in Tennessee. The foundation for this analysis is the four-frame
organizational model proposed by Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal (2008). These four
perspectives, which create a multiframe thinking approach for organizational leaders, are
described as follows: 1) Structural frame, which looks beyond individuals to examine the social
architecture of workThe right structure depends on prevailing circumstances and considers an
organizations goals, strategies, technology, people, and environment (pp. 68-69); 2) Human
resource frame, which highlights the relationship between people and organizations (p.
137); 3)Political frame, which views organizations as coalitions composed of individuals and
groups with enduring differences who live in a world of scarce resources. That puts power and
conflict at the center of organizational decision making (p. 209); and 4) Symbolic frame, which
focuses on how humans make sense of the chaotic, ambiguous world in which they live.
Meaning, belief, and faith are its central concerns (p. 248). The ultimate goal is to determine
how well MNPS is doing under these four frames and what potential areas of improvement can
be recommended.
Lastly, it is important to note that the assessment is based on a combination of a few
years of anecdotal evidence and a limited pool of available research. Therefore, providing a
comprehensive analysis of such a large and complex school district as MNPS would require
more sophisticated investigative and analytical considerations, which goes beyond the time and
space constraints required to complete and submit the assignment.

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Background
MNPS has a total enrollment of more than 81,000 students, making it the second largest
public school system in Tennessee and the 41st largest school district in the U.S. There are 153
schools, including alternative and charter schools. Total certificated staff is 6,539 and the number
of support personnel is 3,694 for a total of 10,041 employees. Almost 73% of the student body is
economically-disadvantage and 24% are English learners.
In addition to K-12 education, MNPS offers numerous Pre-K classes and has several
options for adult learns and offers a program for gifted and talented students.
MNPS is also one of the most diverse school districts in the nation. 120 countries and
nearly the same amount of languages were represented in the 2012-2013 school year. Here is a
demographical outlook of our student population by grade tier and ethnicity:
TOTAL ENROLLMENT
Pre-School
Pre-Kinder
Elementary School
Middle School
High School
Exceptional Education
Total
STUDENT ETHNIC COMPOSITION (DISTRICT
WIDE):
Asian
3, 260
Black
37,116
Hispanic
15,057
Indian
136
Pacific Islander
102
White
26,567

(Metro Schools Communications Department, 2013)

141
1,978
34,793
22,656
19,895
1,570
81, 033

4.1%

45.8%
16.5%
0.2%
0.1%
33.3%

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The district is governed by the Davidson County Board of Education, a nine-member

group of elected officials. One of the core tasks of the Board is hiring the Director of Schools
and to ensure the integrity of the system. They meet regularly primarily to review and discuss
policies, budgets and related matters presented by the Director of Schools or designees. Other
times, the Board is the ultimate authority to settle internal or external situations related to school
matters that have not been resolved through protocols in place. The Director of Schools as the
chief central administrator and educational leader obviously sets the tone for everything that
happens in almost 60 departments.
MNPS Structural Frame
Both anecdotal and empirical evidence suggest that, overall, Metropolitan Nashville
Public Schools structure has not always been sound. This is particularly true for the two core
structural components of differentiation (also known as allocation of work) and integration
(coordination of diverse efforts). Evidence for heightened vertical coordination vs. lateral
coordination efforts is prevalent across departments. A few areas like Customer Service, School
Options, Communications, and Support Services, seem to have a very good structural balance.
Additional changes have been implemented in the structural model that looks very similar to the
Mintzberg five-component model of strategic apex, middle line, operating score,
technostructure, and support staff that Bolman and Deal (2008) clearly depict (p. 79).
In spite of these changes, the district has faced in recent year a series of internal and
external pressures including potential state take-over because of failure to meet state
benchmarks. While there have been important gains in some areas, particularly through the most
recent reward school evaluation system by the Tennessee Department of Education, MNPS

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still lags behind other surrounding districts according to the most recent data from the Tennessee
Department of Education (2013 Report Card).
As a result, a sense of urgency to reframe the structure has emerged. With it, heightened
tension has occurred across the district. This tension has been particularly evident between the
central office and many school administrators. For years many principals have regarded the
central office as a distraction and even an obstacle to their school improvement efforts. As a
matter of fact, a recent study conducted by Shirley and Piazza (2012) reflects that tension: The
major obstacle to increasing capacity in the MNPS was viewed by principals as residing in the
districts central office and its personnel (p. 10). Another principal said, The folks at the
central office are very nice folks, so Im not saying anything bad about them. I like them. I dont
know why they would hire me to run the school if theyre not going to let me run the school. So,
Im willing to, you know, let me run the school. If I mess it up, fire me. Im okay with that. Im
willing to take that chance (2012, p. 15). That blame game is also reciprocal, as more than one
Central Office executive has attributed lack of progress at a particular school to lack of
consistency in implementation of a particular program. In fact, one central office administrator
justifies a micromanaging approach because of districts sense of urgency. Nobody wants to be
low performingso you actually get more dictates, more programs, more orders, you know,
more constraints (2012, p. 16).
This tension seems to exist lately between many social workers and the head of discipline
at the central office. Social workers contend they are overworked and the district ought to hire
more of them; the central office leader claims the social workers should learn to manage their
time more efficiently. No wonder Bolman and Deal say that finger-pointing attitude is nothing

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but a fallacy of human thinking and When it is hard to identify a guilty individual, a second
popular option is blaming the bureaucracy (2008, p. 27).
Structural fissures also exist in the English Learners (EL) department. According to a
comparison chart from Tennessee Report Card 2012-2013
(https://srcreports.measuretn.gov/views/TenneseeSchoolReportcard2013v2/Comparisons?:embed
=y&:display_count=no), English Learners achieved the least vs. other subgroups. That resulted
in removal of the departments Executive Director. That person is the second leader of that
department that has been either removed or reassigned to other positions in recent years.
Another characteristic for the structure is the short-lived nature of districts programs and
strategic plans that were originally conceived as a long term proposition. To illustrate this, over
the past eight years there have been four transformational initiatives touted as very promising
toward academic achievement, one under a previous superintendent and the other three under the
current administration: 1) Seven Year Strategic Plan in 2007; 2) MNPS Achieves/
Transformational Leadership Group Initiative in 2010; Inspirational Schools Partnership in 2011;
and in 2013 the MNPS Strategic Plan, Education 2018: Excellence for Every Student. While the
above initiatives were conceived with a sense of urgency and other change characteristics, it is
difficult to contend that they allowed Producing visible symbols of progress through shortterm victories or Sticking with the process and refusing to quit when things get tough, two
eight very important characteristics that are repeatedly found in successful change initiatives
according to Kotter (as cited by Bolman and Deal, 2008, 394).
Another criticism is that, while the district is very diverse as demonstrated earlier, it was
not until 2012 that it adopted a clearly detailed document based on an extract from the school
systems mission and vision on diversity:

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We embrace and value a diverse student population and community. Different

perspectives and backgrounds form the cornerstone of our strong public education
system. To succeed we mustEnsure that school leadership is focused on high
student achievement and cultivates an environment that produces excellence for a
diverse student body (retrieved from http://www.mnps.org/Page101336.aspx).
In this regard, the Board of Education, arguably attributed to increasing political pressure,
officially adopted a document called MNPS Diversity Initiatives (2012) that, among other things,
emphasizes a series of strategies to avoid racial isolation and promote diversity. Among those
strategies is to require all magnet schools to provide transportation to students who qualify for
free or reduced price meals (p.2)
In spite of the above-stated structural weaknesses, great things are happening at other
departments in the district. One of those departments is Family and Community Partnerships,
which is under the area of Support Services, and headed by a change agent. Everyone has a clear
understanding of her/his roles and responsibilities and the morale is very high. Daily activities,
which emphasize socioemotional aspects of students and families, are distributed among twelve
Family Involvement Specialists (FIS), one per each of the 12 existing school clusters/ zoned
school areas in the district. These professionals are also part of Cluster Support Teams, which
include a Social Worker, an Attendance Specialist, and a Clerk. This team meets regularly to
analyze school data and that way identify students at risk of failing, particularly those with
moderate to severe truancies.
With data at hand, these teams then meet with the principal and other key members of the
school staff to conduct as the department has coined as Support & Intervention meetings to
discuss potential internal and external resources for targeted students and their families. In

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addition to the FIS, the department has 6 Community Outreach Specialists (COS), who besides
acting as liaisons between families, schools, and communities, they specialize in other aspects
including: professional development, immigrant and refugee outreach, event coordination, faith
community outreach, parental empowerment, communications, and public relations. Short-term
victories are celebrated as schools, families, and communities seem to be working more closely
together toward student achievement. This successful structural dynamic is clearly expressed in
figure 1, below:

Figure 1- Infographic of Department of Family & Community

Partnerships

Source: MNPS Department of Family and Community Partnerships

(2013), provided via e-mail, no URL available at this point.

Recommendations for structural reframing

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In spite of increased autonomy that principals have received over the past two years,
particularly with the promotion of Lead Principals to serve as liaisons between a cluster of
principals and the central office, tension is still prevalent; principals and teachers feel
overworked and micromanaged. Therefore, my recommendation for the district would be as
follows:
1. Starting the next school year, provide all principals with full autonomy in every
single area of contention such as recruiting, professional development, budget
allocation, etc. The only involvement of central office executive staff will be as a
coach in decision making, particularly for new principals. In other words, have
the principals create sef-managing teams from the bottom up. Why trying this?
Evidence suggest that self-directed teams often produce better results and higher
morale than groups operating under more traditional top-down control (Cohen and
Ledford, 1994; Emery and Fredendal, 2002) (2008, p. 113).

2. Because many principals also complain about the lack of time to read even a
fraction of the enormous amount of printed and/or electronic information they
receive every day across the district, I would recommend that the central office
simplify the communication process by creating and delivering short, yet relevant
announcements on key initiatives. These messages ought to be sent via the
principals medium of choice, such as Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, or even
scheduled voice messages through the districts internal callout system.

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3. While every department is different, every leader should create ongoing

interdepartmental opportunities for collaboration toward the common goal of
academic achievement, always adhered to the districts mission and vision. One
idea would be requiring each employee spend one hour per week at each
department to get to meet and interact with the staff and learn a little about
procedures. That approach can result in collaboration and the reduction and
ultimate eradication of the Us vs. Them archetype existing in several
structural areas.
MNPS Human Resources Frame
Let us take a quick look at the Mission Statement of the MNPS Human Capital Services
department:
The purpose and direction of the Human Capital Services (HCS) department is
to advance the overall mission of MNPS. HCS achieves its mission by providing
services that support the District in recruiting, employing, retaining, and
developing faculty and staff. The focus of HCS is to contribute to the
maximization of a high-level of personal and group performance through the
provision of a full-range of centralized comprehensive human resource
management services, internal consulting, problem resolution, and benefits that
promote the health and productivity of every employee (retrieved from
http://www.hr.mnps.org/Page87712.aspx)

While the HCS seems to be doing a very good job overall in focusing on welfare of
employees, there seems to be disagreement among many about the internal consulting portion

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of the mission statement. Additionally, there seems to be a lot of tension about the emphasis on
the centralized aspect of such statement. Being such a vast, complex, educational system,
Metro Nashville Public Schools is characterized by a highly competive interdepartmental
approach where everyone is trying to meet their own individual goals and objectives while
keeping lackluster focus on the overall mission and vision of the school district. This situation
has been more prevalent in recent years as pressures for academic achievement has resulted in a
multi-rubric, rigid evaluation processes. Consequently, many educators feel both
underappreciated and overworked, and exhibit a cynical view about job security.
In the past year, the accountability lever continued to rise as a result of subpar academic
results for certain student subgroups. That inevitably produced more tension among employees.
Additionally, budgetary constraints resulting from the recent recession that plagued the nation
have resulted in the elimination of certain school and district programs, which have resulted in
either job loss or job reallocation to other departments. In other instances, a significant number
of key central office executives have been sent back to the classroom as a way to maximize
efforts toward student achievement.
In spite of this perception by many employees in MNPS, the department of Family and
Community Partnerships which was previously mentioned as an example of functional structure,
has an Executive Director that clearly understands the importance of nurturing, developing, and
empowering her 25 employees. She is very accessible and, while she has high expectations for
each individual staff member, she has established a sense of camaraderie and collaboration
among everyone. She is very conscientious of the burden each employee has to effect academic
achievement and she makes sure to provide whatever professional development opportunity
toward victory. She makes sure that each employee feels valued within the team. As an incentive

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toward excellence, team groups are encouraged to compete for a special trophy and a gift card to
a local restaurant based on a series of pre-established measurable outcomes, such as truancy
reduction and number of community partners that contributed to the reduction of socio-emotional
barriers in our students. As a result, while other departments have been required to eliminate
certain positions due to ever-increasing budgetary constraints, the Department of Family and
Community Partnerships has actually added 2 new positions recently. Morale is very high and a
sense of family structure is easy perceived. Personal and professional accomplishments are
publically celebrated and it is not uncommon for the leader to pay for everyones lunch, out of
her own money, as a token of appreciation for everyones effort toward student achievement.
This success could arguably be attributed to her following mostly, if not totally, Maslows
hierarchy of needs that Bolman and Deal clearly illustrate and explain (pp.124-125).
Recommendations for human resource reframing in MNPS
While many positive things are happening in various MNPS department, the following
recommendations for overall reframing of Human Resources:
1. Create and maintain a culture of interdepartmental cooperation. One idea could be
encouraging each central office employee to spend one hour a month at a different
department to observe procedures toward a common district goal: Closing the
achievement gap.
2. Encourage each department head to allow each staff member for ongoing
volunteering opportunities at schools.
3. Require each employee to take a diversity/cultural competency class as part of the
hiring requirements.

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4. Provide administrators with more autonomy in hiring and professional

development opportunities for teachers.
5. Foster a culture of trust by enhancing ongoing effective communication practices
across the district, especially if drastic change is about to occur at school or
district levels.
6. Encourage diversity inclusion for both support and certificated positions from
refugee and immigrant populations. While 20% of customers (students and
families) are from those communities, less than 1% of total employees in the
district represent those populations.

MNPS Political Frame

Internally, the political climate in MNPS is characterized by heavy internal and external
competition for power and scarce resources. This situation has been more prevalent in recent
years with the increased expansion of charter schools, which have gained significant
sociopolitical support, including the Mayor, a Democrat, and the Governor, a Republican.
Nonetheless, the majority of members of the School Board feel that while they do not oppose the
presence of such schools, they should not be at expense of districts limited resources.
To illustrate the above, in 2012 the Board rejected by a 7-2 vote margin the approval of a
charter school called Great Hearts, even after multiple calls for approval from the political
establishment, particularly the Tennessee Education Commissioner who had threatened
consequences if the charter was denied. One of the Board members cited fear of segregation as a
reason to deny the approval (TheCityPaper, 2012). A few months later, in spite of pleas from

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MNPS Officials and district advocates, the State reprimanded MNPS by imposing a penalty of
$3.4 million of promised administrative funding and distributed the funds to other school
systems. In response to criticisms by Charter advocates on the Districts refusal to approve Great
Hearts, District officials argued the States imposition on School Board decisions on charter
schools, usurp local authority and fail to take into account the financial and academic
consequences that new charters have on the regular public school system (Education Week,
2012).
The political confrontation between the School Board and Charter advocates has recently
intensified. In a 7-1 decision, the School Board restricted the expansion of new charter schools
for the 2014 school year to only those areas in town where traditional schools are over capacity.
As expected, there was reaction from the other side. In fact, Mayor Karl Dean, an outspoken
charter proponent, told The Tennessean that the plan concerns him, in part because some of the
citys highest-performing schools are charters. He continued to argue that the idea for charter
schools existence in not just for capacity purposes, rather to improve the education system and
provide an opportunity to those seeking the education they deserve (The Tennessean, 2013).
Nonetheless, many good things have been happening for a while in the district as far as
external coalition building. Programs like Family Resource Centers (FRCs), Parent University,
Poverty Simulation, and Bringing Justice to You are worth mentioning. As an example for the
latter, this District initiative has succeeded in partnering with the Davidson County Public
Defender, Criminal Court Clerk, and General Sessions Court to provide limited expungement of
records and fee and fine waivers to qualifying MNPS families. The sentiment on the good things
the district is doing and how politics often clouds them, particularly the FRCs, has been recently
echoed by the media (The Tennessean, 2013b). Other positive things that are happening from a

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political point of view include the expansion of magnet and other optional schools, particularly
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) schools as a counterweight to the
expanding growth of STEM charter schools.
Recommendations for political reframing in MNPS
1. Recruitment of an expert in government affairs and conflict resolution. That
person should be in charge of building powerful coalitions at local, state, and even
national levels.
2. Draft a memorandum of understanding for potential collaboration between
traditional and charter schools. That would contribute to easing of tensions.
3. To budget for year-round marketing campaign to showcase effective MNPS
programs and events.
MNPS Symbolic Frame
Based on observations and casual conversations with various employees (both support
and certificated) from different departments, the generalized view is that MNPS in actuality
lacks of a symbolic perspective where everyone can look to for either inspiration or solace, in
times of organizational prosperity or in times of crisis. There could be blurred symbols at
different departments, but are hard to articulate. Additionally, while symbolic aspects are part of
the culture in many successful individual schools, especially those nominated as national Blue
Ribbon Schools, the District, per se, struggles to create a unifying symbolic lens toward a
common objective: academic achievement for all students.
One possibility lies within the context of the districts mission statement:

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Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will provide every student with the
foundation of knowledge, skills, and character necessary to excel in higher
education, work and life. We embrace and value a diverse student population and
community. Different perspectives and backgrounds form the cornerstone of our
strong public education system. (Retrieved from
http://www.mnps.org/Page63178.aspx)
As one can see, it is very important for the district to embrace and value a diverse
student population and community. This could be a potential symbol to adopt and value. The
issue is that even in this day and age anecdotal evidence suggests that many minority students
and families are concerned about unwelcoming environments at certain schools. To complicate
matters, minority students (with the exception of Asians) have been academically lagging behind
their white counterparts for years (Tennessee Department of Education, Report Card 2013).
So, what can be done to change the status quo? The answer is not that simple.
Nonetheless, Cornfield et al (2013) recommend a series of steps that Nashville needs to take for
more inclusive and equitable practices in the next 25 years, including to Bring AfricanAmerican parents back into the Metro Nashville Public School system public
education system. Provide diversity training for MNPS teachers and administrators to make
schools safer and more welcoming for members of the African-American community (p. 28).
Consequently, because it is evident that creating a symbol around the strength of diversity
in school would be counterproductive at this time, it is necessary to think about other
possibilities.

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Recommendations for symbolic reframing in MNPS

Because of severe weakness in the symbolic frame, a recommended possibility for the
District would be adopting a symbolic frame around the proven success of its school academies,
as described below:
Because no two students are alike, Metro schools offer programs as diverse as the
families they serve, all focused on the goal of creating college and career-ready
students. These courses are tailored to meet the needs of every student of every
ability, with advanced academic programs like Encore, International
Baccalaureate and AP, as well as inclusive practices that integrate English
learners and students with special needs into traditional classrooms with their
peers. Students are engaged in diverse learning environments, where they learn
through a rigorous curriculum based on the Common Core State Standards.
(Retrieved from http://www.mnps.org/Page56417.aspx).
This view is more uplifting and inspiring. It evokes success. A new belief system. That
means even changing the name from Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (see figure 2) to
Metropolitan Nashville Public Academies would be something to consider for a strong symbolic
frame conducive to a gradual transformation process.

Figure 2

Source:
http://www.mnps.org/Sharedsites/234/templates/images/logo
withbkgrd609.jpg

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17

Conclusion
Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools has the huge but necessary challenge ahead of
adopting significant changes in the way it conducts business. There are significant concerns in all
four leadership frames, particularly at structural level. The lack of a strong symbol to unify the
district has been labeled as troubling by many. While the district has made a slight improvement
in academic achievement for grades 3-8 (see figure 3) and a more notable progress for growth in
grades 4-8 (figure 4), (Tennessee Department of Education, 2013 Report Card), that has not been
enough to catch up with other surrounding school systems. Therefore, if MNPS adopts a
comprehensive transformation construct through visionary leaders willing to challenge the status
quo, a bright future lies ahead. To get there, reframing the current MNPS business model by
effectively combining all four leadership mindsets, is an imperative that cannot wait.

Figure 3

Source: http://mnpschildrenfirst.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/screen-shot-2013-11-13at-10-30-21-am.png?w=604

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Figure 4

Source: http://mnpschildrenfirst.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/screen-shot-2013-11-13at-10-30-30-am.png?w=604

18

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References
Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership
(4th ed.), San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Cavanagh, S. (2012, September 18). Tennessee withholds Nashville funds after charter denial.
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ation_announced.html
Cornfield, D.B., Newbern, A., Dixon, S., Eatherly, M., Fotopulos, S., Murphy, K., Williams,
A. (2013). Partnering for an equitable and inclusive Nashville. Retrieved from
http://www.tnimmigrant.org/storage/policy/FINAL%20Equity-and-Inclusion.pdf
Garrison, J. (2012, June 26). School board rejects Great Hearts, approves KIPP and Purpose
Prep. TheCityPaper. Retrieved from http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/citynews/school-board-rejects-great-hearts-approves-kipp-and-purpose-prep
Kerr, G. (2013, November 9). Gail Kerr: Politics often clouds Metro schools' good work. The
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http://www.mnps.org/AssetFactory.aspx?did=73186

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Shirley, D. & Piazza, P. (2012). A report on the inspirational schools partnership with the
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