Summary:
Zip code 37205 in Nashville is home to two public middle schools — H. G. Hill Middle School and West End Middle School — both serving grades 6–8 as part of Metro Nashville Public Schools. Together the two schools enroll about 760 students, and both report similar per-student funding of roughly $17,000 to $18,000.
West End is the stronger school overall. It ranks in the 60th percentile statewide (236 of 594 schools) with a 3-star rating, while H.G. Hill ranks in the 25th percentile (443 of 594) with 1 star. West End beats H.G. Hill in every core subject, including math (32.4% vs. 20.3%), ELA (38.2% vs. 21.9%), science (47.2% vs. 37.2%), and social studies (52.8% vs. 33.2%). West End also has lower chronic absenteeism at 16.6%, better than the state average of 18.3%, while H.G. Hill's 20.9% exceeds the state average. One caution: West End's state rank has slipped from the 78th percentile in 2023-24 to the 60th percentile in 2025-26, and its ELA proficiency dropped nearly 6 points year over year. H.G. Hill, meanwhile, has slowly improved from the 22nd to the 25th percentile.
H.G. Hill does have one striking bright spot: an extraordinary 89.5% proficiency rate in Integrated Math I — a high school-level course taken by a select group of advanced 8th graders — which actually beats West End's 83.9% and far surpasses the district rate of 28.2%. This should not be read as schoolwide math success, since H.G. Hill's overall 8th-grade math proficiency is just 16.3%. The achievement gap between the two schools is significant despite similar spending, suggesting factors like school culture and chronic absenteeism matter more than per-student dollars. Families should also note that both schools show a shared weakness in 8th-grade social studies relative to state averages, and H.G. Hill's 6th-grade math and 8th-grade ELA are specific trouble spots.
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