The top reported proficiency rate is 18% in Science. The lowest is 10% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Cumberland Elementary
Cumberland Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in Nashville’s Davidson County district, a major urban system that covers the entire consolidated city-county. The school is located on Cato Road in the northwestern part of the city, in a zip code where the housing market shows typical prices for a large Sun Belt metro: home values have softened slightly over the past year while rents have risen, reflecting Nashville’s continuing growth and demand for housing. The city itself is a fast-growing state capital with a diversified economy rooted in healthcare, music, publishing, and technology, and its schools operate within a sprawling built environment that makes car travel the norm for most families.
Academically, state assessment results place Cumberland at a level that families will want to examine closely. In the most recent testing year, the share of students meeting Tennessee’s proficiency standards was modest in math and English language arts, and somewhat higher in science. Relative to other schools in Davidson County where comparable data is available, the school’s combined proficiency across tested subjects sits above the midpoint of the range, though the range itself includes schools with substantially higher results. The school’s participation rates on these assessments were very high, meaning the reported results reflect nearly every enrolled student’s performance. Because Cumberland is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate to report, and the data does not include any information about chronic absenteeism, student discipline, or class sizes.
The student body of roughly 440 children is predominantly Black, with a notable Hispanic minority and smaller shares of White students and students identifying as two or more races. The data does not indicate what share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, nor does it provide counts for students receiving special education services or those classified as English learners. These are meaningful gaps for a parent trying to understand the level of economic diversity in the building or the availability of targeted supports. Similarly, there is no information about the school’s staffing ratios, program offerings such as gifted or intervention services, or whether it operates under a Title I designation.
Cumberland is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it reports itself as fully open with no special designation. The district brief for Davidson County turned up no recent parent-relevant changes or initiatives to report at the system level, so families evaluating the school should look to the school itself for current details about programming and school climate. The broader Nashville context is one of rapid population growth and a robust job market, but the school’s immediate neighborhood does not have the high-density walkability of downtown; a car is essentially required for access.
For a parent weighing this school, the core known facts are its academic performance, which is low in absolute terms even if slightly above the midpoint among a small set of peer schools in the county, and the demographic composition, which reflects a majority-Black student body with growing Hispanic enrollment. The missing data on economic disadvantage, special education, and English learner services means that a family cannot get a full picture of the student support environment from this data alone. A visit to the school to discuss class sizes, intervention programs, and the school’s approach to meeting varied student needs would be a natural next step.
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