Revered Nashville teacher Mary Catherine Bradshaw to leave public education

Mary Catherine Bradshaw, a teacher in Metro Nashville for three decades, revered especially during her time at Hillsboro High School, is retiring from public education, and she says standardized testing is the reason.

Instead, she confirmed she'll be joining the staff as a history teacher this August at one of Nashville's most prestigious private institutions — Ensworth School.

Bradshaw, who for the past two years has taught at LEAD Academy High School, a Nashville charter school, said the concentration on testing and data collection within the public education system prompted her move.

Testing, she said, has taken away from instructional time and taken the joy out of learning.

Much has changed, she said, since she took her first job as a teacher at Hillsboro in 1984 when she said she was attracted to its diversity and commitment to academic reputation.

"There was more of a focus on the whole student, the joy of learning, building a community and finding one's own passion in the midst of the K-12 experience," she said.

"Now, with the focus on testing, data collection and closing a too narrowly defined gap among learners, I have found myself ready to retire from public education."

Bradshaw, who was instrumental in the launching of the International Baccalaureate program at Hillsboro, gained numerous headlines in 2011 when a disagreement with that school's advancement of the Academies of Nashville program led to a well-publicized transfer to Martin Luther King Jr. Academic High School.

A year later, she moved to LEAD to become its dean of instruction. At one point, Bradshaw had held community meetings about the possibility of proposing her own charter school, but she opted against that idea.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.