The Promise

Last fall, parents from Lockeland Elementary held a community meeting to talk about the elephant in the room: Despite the diversity of the neighborhood, their school was the whitest school in the enti...

5 Okt 202045min

Warner Elementary is about to take its moon shot. After landing on the state’s list of lowest-performing schools, it’s aiming to make the list of highest-performing schools. Finally, it has all the ri...

28 Sep 202036min

When Willie Sims’ daughter started kindergarten at a high-performing elementary school in East Nashville, all seemed well at first. His daughter loved her teacher. She was making friends. But then Wil...

21 Sep 202037min

After 43 years of courtroom battles, Nashville's landmark school desegregation lawsuit was settled.  In the eyes of the law, the city finally made an honest effort to racially integrate its schools. B...

14 Sep 202029min

To understand the resegregation of Nashville’s schools, you have to start with understanding desegregation.   In 1954, the famous Brown v. Board decision ruled that segregated schools violated the co...

7 Sep 202045min

At the beginning of the 2019 school year, Principal Ricki Gibbs knew he had a tough job ahead. Warner Elementary in East Nashville had just landed on Tennessee’s list of lowest performing schools. It ...

31 Aug 202030min

Season 2 of The Promise grapples with some of the most divisive topics in America: public education and race. This is a story about one school trying to stay afloat, a neighborhood divided over race a...

3 Aug 20201min

Ms. Vernell has another big decision to make: to stay in Cayce through the chaos of redevelopment, or to leave? Her conclusion reveals something about this long, messy process to overhaul Nashville’s ...

4 Nov 201923min