Hume-Fogg High School (Nashville)

    Hume-Fogg High School is an academic magnet school in the Nashville-Davidson County public school system.
    Hume-Fogg has a reputation for high achievement, a reputation that was backed up by its ranking by Newsweek magazine in 2008 as the 24th best public high school in the country. Another of Nashville's academic magnet high schools, Martin Luther King Jr., ranked 23rd. The rankings were based on the number of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests taken by students at a school in 2007 divided by the number of graduating seniors.
    Hume-Fogg is located at 700 Broadway in downtown Nashville.
    Approximately 850 students attended Hume-Fogg High School in 2007-08.  Sixty-six percent of students who apply as eighth graders are admitted to the school. Students represented 39 of 45 zip code areas in the Metropolitan area. Hume-Fogg had 44 faculty members. Of these, 39 hold an advanced degree.

History

      Hume-Fogg High School traces its beginnings to Nashville's first public school, Hume High School, which opened in 1855 at the corner of Eighth Avenue (then known as Spruce Street) and Broad.¹ In 1875, the second public school, Fogg High School, was started on the same property facing Broad Street. The schools were combined into a new facility on the same site in 1912 and became known as Hume-Fogg High School. In 1919 Hume-Fogg became the first school in Tennessee to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
    Until 1940, the curriculum followed the classic format which included requirements in Latin, English, advanced mathematics and science. In 1953, the curriculum was changed to include technical and vocational subjects.
    The advent of the first secondary magnet school to serve Nashville's academically talented students was another milestone for Hume-Fogg. As part of a desegregation court order, the school was designed to attract a voluntary cross-section of academically able students from all racial, ethnic, and economic groups in Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County. It began with grades 9 and 10, added one grade per year through the 1985-86 school year and graduated the first class in 1986.

Philosophy

    The Hume-Fogg Web site states that the school, which draws its population from the entire Metropolitan area, "is committed to meeting academic needs and to providing opportunities for personal development. Shared expectations foster a love of learning and nurture growth. The program provides high academic standards through challenging course work. Cornerstones of this philosophy, based on the assumption that graduates will pursue post-secondary education, are creative thinking, abstract reasoning, cooperative learning, and self-discipline. The program encourages the development of integrity, decision-making skills, and in-depth pursuit of interests. This approach encompasses a commitment to maximizing individual potential, including emotional and physical well being, through hard work and personal responsibility while promoting sensitivity to natural, social and cultural environments."

References

    ^{1_{This information and other information in this article came from the Hume-Fogg High School Web site.}}

_{Related Nashville-Middle TN topics on Civic Scope}

_{Education Info}