U.S. News & World Report has released its annual ranking of the top public schools in the nation, with a familiar face leading the charge in Tennessee and moving up the chart.

Nashville’s Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School ranks No. 37, placing the downtown-based institution tops in the state. Last year, U.S. News & World Report ranked Hume-Fogg No. 49 in the country. In the magazine's annual ranking, Hume-Fogg consistently ranks No. 1 among the state's public high schools.

The state’s “runner-up” is Martin Luther King Academic Magnet, which is ranked No. 113 in the country. In 2012, North Nashville-based MLK ranked 80th nationally. Rounding off the top five in Tennessee are Merrol Hyde Magnet in Hendersonville, which ranked 127th nationally; Brentwood High, which ranked 227th; and Ravenwood High in Brentwood, which ranked No. 474.

Franklin High, at No. 8, is the only other Midstate school ranked in the state's Top 10. A full list of Tennessee schools evaluated can be found here.

Veteran Metro Schools teacher Mary Catherine Bradshaw — who made headlines in early 2011 when she left her position as International Baccalaureate coordinator at Hillsboro High to teach at Martin Luther King Academic Magnet High School — is leaving the system to work for LEAD Public Schools, a Nashville charter network. She will serve as dean of instruction of LEAD Academy High School.

Joey Garrison and The City Paper have the story here.

The relationship and communication between the Metro Schools board and the Service Employees International Union are growing ever more sour. The union on Monday filed suit against Director of Schools Jesse Register and the nine-member board over the recent recission of the district's labor negotiations policy. Joey Garrison has the details.

The Metro school board on Tuesday voted to approve two charter school applications for Antioch and North Nashville — which next fall will lift the city's count to 15 — but denied applications from two well-known organizations, Nashville's KIPP Academy and Arizona-based Great Hearts Academies. Joey Garrison has more on why the board did what it did and which one of the two groups immediately said it would appeal.

U.S. News & World Report has released its annual ranking of the top public high schools in the nation. Coming in at No. 49 nationally and No. 1 in Tennessee was Nashville's Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School. Ranked No. 80 nationally was Martin Luther King Academic Magnet, which was the statewide runner-up.

Other Nashville are schools included in the national rankings were Merrol Hyde Magnet, Brentwood High and Fred J. Page High, which ranked 109th, 203rd and 1,820th, respectively. A full list of Tennessee schools evaluated can be found here.

Update: PostBusiness mistakely neglected to include Merrol Hyde Magnet in the original version of this story.

Count Country Music Television in for The Academies of Nashville program at Metro Schools. The television network has signed an agreement to provide $100,000 worth of in-kind contributions in the coming year to the Academy of Digital Design and Communication at McGavock High School. After that, CMT officials — who are the fifth group to sign with Metro — will be asked to provide $50,000 worth of contributions.

Joey Garrison takes a close look at Mayor Dean's bold push into the realm of charter schools. Not long after he appeared on track to take over Metro Schools, Dean has followed through on his involvement in helping make Tennessee law more receptive to charters. But that doesn't mean there aren't potential hurdles down the road.

Perhaps recognizing the preliminary status of these charter schools, the school district’s central office declined to make Director of Schools Jesse Register available for a story on Dean’s charter school push. The Dean-Register dynamic when it comes to charters is worth tracking.

“We will pass on this one,” Metro Nashville Public Schools spokeswoman Meredith Libbey wrote in an email, responding to an interview request.

Tennessee State University President Portia Shields and her team have submitted an application to launch a K-8 charter school as part of Metro Schools' push into alternative structures. Twelve other groups, including Randy Dowell's KIPP Academy, have thrown their hat in the ring.

The charter school, governed by a board that would include TSU's deans, would allow the university to live up to a "responsibility for helping our neighborhood," she said. "You should see loving arms wrapped around the children in the neighborhood and supported by our students, our faculty and staff, and the community ... ," Shields said.