Academics
Student-Centered Personalized Learning
At Nashville Big Picture High School, academics are personal. Every student follows a plan built around their interests, their pace and their goals. And every student is held to the same standard: show us what you can do. A student headed toward nursing takes anatomy and physiology for college credit. A student building a portfolio takes drawing at the college level. The question we ask is where are you going, and what will get you there faster?
We encourage every student to stretch. Advanced courses open doors, sharpen thinking, and show students what they're capable of before anyone else does. Many carry college credit, which means the work a student does here can shorten the road ahead — and lower the cost of it. Counselors help every student find the courses that fit their plan.
Three days a week our students are in school. Two days a week they're working alongside professionals across Nashville.
Nobody gets the same schedule. Learning here is built one student at a time. Advisors stay with the same fifteen students for two years — close enough to know when a student is ready to move faster, and when they need to slow down. Coursework, college credit and internships are sequenced around what each student is working toward.
Show Us What You Can Do
Our students don't just take tests. They defend their work.
Every quarter, students present what they've learned to a room of families, advisors and mentors. Seniors design and complete a capstone project of their own choosing.
Standing in front of people who know you and explaining what you built is harder than filling in a bubble. It's also better practice for everything that comes next.
Earn College Credit Before You Graduate
Our students take real college courses for real college credit — 282 credits earned last year, every course passed. Sophomores, juniors and seniors all take part. Students can also take credit-bearing courses taught by university faculty from their desk at Big Picture through our partnerships with Howard University and Spelman College.
Contracted Honors courses let students take on additional, more rigorous work inside a course they're already enrolled in.
Advanced academic courses include Dual Enrollment (DE) courses, offered through Nashville State Community College.
Kick-Start Your Career
Not every next step runs through a four-year degree.
77% of our students are enrolled in courses with built in industry certification aligned to fields they've already chosen, including information technology, health sciences, education, arts and audio-visual technology, and business administration.
Every Senior Leaves With a Plan
College and career readiness isn't a box we check in the spring. Students build toward it for four years — through advanced coursework, certifications, college credit and real-world experience — and the class of 2026 earned more than $1.7 million in scholarships on the way out the door. Every plan starts the same way: a student and a counselor, sitting down together, figuring out where this is going. Families are part of that conversation, and students can adjust course as their goals sharpen.