MNPS Voices: Dr. LaToya Anderson, Literacy Coach, John Early Museum Magnet Middle School

Dr. LaToya Anderson has spent nearly 25 years teaching in Nashville classrooms, from preschool to graduate school. This year she is putting all of that experience to work in a building she already knows well: John Early Museum Magnet Middle School, where she is the new literacy coach. 

Anderson's path to John Early runs directly through Vanderbilt University. Previously the director of field immersion and a senior lecturer there, she spent two years on the steering committee for the Vanderbilt Model School Partnership, a collaboration between the university’s Peabody College and Metro Nashville Public Schools built around John Early Middle. When a literacy coach position opened at the middle school, Anderson knew she was the best person for the role. 

"I was already working with John Early and excited about the work happening here," she said, describing the care she saw from the school's staff for its students. 

That partnership is at the heart of what makes John Early unique. Vanderbilt faculty and students are on campus every week, coaching alongside teachers and helping plan instruction. Three days a week during Academic Support Time, Vanderbilt undergraduate and graduate students provide high-dosage tutoring, working consistently with the same small groups of scholars so real relationships can form.  

School leaders, teachers, Vanderbilt professors, and Anderson herself take part in weekly collaboration and feedback sessions guided by Vanderbilt faculty, testing new strategies for questioning and discourse and sharing what they learn with the rest of the faculty each semester so they can use what they learn at John Early to inform teaching at the university. 

The partnership has already produced one of Anderson's favorite stories. Julianna Kinser was a Vanderbilt master's student in Anderson's Classroom Ecology course last year. She tutored at John Early far beyond what her coursework required and sat in on math planning sessions just to learn the material better.  

This fall, Kinser returned to John Early as the eighth-grade math and science teacher. 

“My experience with the John Early and Vanderbilt partnership has been really meaningful.” Kinser said. “I was able to work directly with students, learn from experienced teachers, and build relationships that ultimately made me want to stay at John Early. Now, being able to continue at John Early makes the experience feel full circle.” 

Always reading, always learning 

As the literacy coach, Anderson works alongside teachers in the building to strengthen how reading and writing are taught across subjects, offering feedback, modeling strategies, and helping teachers plan and refine their instruction. 

That instruction supports everyone at the middle school. John Early scholars can take Honors English and math, and the school's AVID framework builds in college and career readiness strategies starting in sixth grade. The payoff shows up at the high school level: John Early is a direct pathway to both Pearl-Cohn High School and Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School, meaning scholars who meet the requirements move on to either school without being placed on a waitlist. 

Anderson traces her own path back to her mother, a retired teacher, and to a childhood built around books. Growing up with limited television, she read constantly, an instinct she has never lost.  

“I used books as my entertainment, and I’m also deeply curious. My mother would say nosy," Anderson said, laughing.  

She earned her K-8 teaching license at Tennessee State University, then went on to Vanderbilt through a program that paired a free master's degree with a five-year commitment to teach middle school in MNPS, setting the course for her career.  

That career has brought her to a smaller school community than what she had experienced in the past. Anderson says she is excited to settle into John Early, a close-knit school where everyone pitches in on everything. 

“As long as I have known Dr. Anderson, she has always held students to high expectations while having a unique way of making them want to work toward those expectations,” Kinser said. “She genuinely believes in students and knows how to encourage them to push themselves and grow.” 

After 25 years in education, Anderson says what keeps her in it is simple. The job is never boring, there is always something new to learn, and nobody, including her, is ever expected to already know everything.  

Learning together is one of her favorite parts.