Which Nashville Neighborhoods Are Near Good Schools?

February 19, 2026

The school quality map of the Nashville area breaks cleanly along county lines. Williamson County suburbs have the best-ranked schools in Tennessee. Within Davidson County, school quality is more uneven, with a handful of strong public options, a significant magnet school system, and a well-established private school ecosystem for families with the means to access it.

Williamson County: the clear leader

If school quality is the primary driver of where you live, Williamson County, specifically Brentwood, Franklin, Nolensville, and Thompson’s Station, produces the outcomes that justify the premium housing costs. Williamson County Schools is consistently ranked among Tennessee’s top school districts and competitive nationally. The high schools in this system send high percentages of graduates to four-year universities.

The trade-off is housing cost. Brentwood median home prices exceed $750,000. Franklin starts at approximately $678,000. Nolensville is around $823,000. These are not accessible prices for families on median Nashville incomes.

Within Davidson County: specific public school pockets

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) is a large, mixed-quality urban district. The best public options within Davidson County include:

Sylvan Park feeds into Sylvan Park Paideia Elementary, which has a strong community reputation. West End Middle School and Hillsboro High School follow in the sequence. Hillsboro High is generally considered one of the better public high schools in the district.

Green Hills’ Julia Green Elementary has a strong local reputation. The J.T. Moore Middle School on the Green Hills corridor is well-regarded.

The magnet school system

Metro Nashville Public Schools operates an extensive magnet program, meaning families throughout Davidson County can apply to specialized public schools regardless of their address. The magnet system creates pathways to better educational outcomes for families who cannot afford private schools or Williamson County housing costs. Nashville School of the Arts, Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School, and Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Magnet are among the schools that draw academically motivated students from across the city.

Private schools

The private school ecosystem is concentrated around Brentwood, Green Hills, Belle Meade, and the Hillsboro Village corridor, near where the families who fund them tend to live. Montgomery Bell Academy (boys, ninth through twelfth), Harpeth Hall (girls), and University School of Nashville are the established flagship institutions. These require tuition rather than geography.

The honest framing

School zone purchasing in Nashville is partly a real estate strategy and partly an educational decision. Families paying $1 million for a Green Hills home partly because of Julia Green Elementary are making a rational calculation. Families who cannot access those prices but are in Davidson County should seriously investigate the magnet school application process before concluding that MNPS will not meet their child’s needs.

Sources

  • Niche, 2025 Safe Suburbs of Nashville Area, school rankings
  • NashvilleSMLS, Living in Sylvan Park guide (school information), 2025
  • Felix Homes, Safest places to live in Tennessee (Williamson County schools)
  • Metro Nashville Public Schools, mnps.org

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