Teachers Go Door-Knocking In Nashville

In Nashville, several public schools are struggling to compete with nearby charters. To recruit more students, teachers are tearing a page from the charter playbook: going door to door.

It's Saturday in East Nashville, and LaTonya White finds herself knocking on a stranger's door. It's awkward. Someone peers out at her through the window. White looks away, pretending not to notice. After an uncomfortable few seconds, the door finally cracks open. White seizes her chance:

"My name is LaTonya White. I'm the principal at Rosebank Elementary School. How are you doing?" she asks, glancing at the clipboard in her hands. On it: a list of families in the area with soon-to-be kindergartners. "Yes, you should have a child ready to come to school soon."

Canvassing for potential students — and honing this kind of front porch pitch — is standard for charter schools. But, for traditional public school leaders like White, it's unfamiliar territory. Still, it may quickly become an expectation as urban districts around the country grapple with destabilization related — at least in part — to the growth of charter schools.

"I think we're just moving to the place where we do have to sell ourselves, where we do have to market ourselves, where we do have to say, 'Hey, look, this is what we're doing,' " White says.

Here's the challenge: Nearly half of all students in East Nashville don't attend their zoned school. Part of that is the district's own doing. Open enrollment, a rising trend in districts around the country, made it so that students in Nashville can attend school just about anywhere they want — as long as there's an open seat. And, in East Nashville, competition is fierce among a crowd of private schools and charters.

More