Joey Garrison

jgarrison@tennessean.com

Eight-year-old Axel Barrera breezed through the first few pages but then stumbled on a word.

“Does it sound right?” his teacher asked. “Does it make sense? Let’s try it again.”

On this morning, he and a class of other third-graders at Nashville’s Cole Elementary School are reading a familiar tale: “Curious George.” Most, like Barrera, were born in Mexico. All are multiple grade levels behind their peers in reading and writing in English, and the goal is to catch them up.

That challenge is a defining one for Nashville’s schools, where an influx of immigrant students over nearly the past two decades has transformed what it means to serve all children.

For the first time, 1 out of every 5 Nashville students is Latino, according to new 2014-15 enrollment figures. They are by far the biggest and fastest-growing ethnic group represented among the 30 percent of Metro Nashville Public Schools students who live in homes in which English is not the primary language. They are also the biggest driver of the 14 percent of students — kids like Barrera, known as English language learners — who take special literacy courses apart from their peers.

More than 140 languages are spoken in Metro schools, accounting for one-third of the state’s ELL population, and that has changed what it means to educate all students regardless of background.

MNPS’ central office has a director specifically assigned to oversee services for ELL students and their curriculum and to determine if they are making gains. Forty-seven translators work across Metro’s schools. The district is seeking to hire more Latino teachers. Mayor Karl Dean’s office, in collaboration with MNPS, unveiled a new program this month to help the transition of new American families by matching them with “parent ambassadors” who are from the same country and speak the same language. Some schools employ “family involvement specialists” to improve school-to-home communication.

“It’s tough for those students because they start behind, but they’re tested the same as other students who speak English,” said Cristina Villarreal Smith, the specialist at Cole Elementary.

“Really helping them help their child succeed academically takes a little bit more work, but what we have found is that every family, immigrant or not, high education level or not, wants their child to succeed.”

While the majority of the students have arrived from Mexico, all Latin American countries are represented here. Many reside in southeast Nashville, feeding schools such as Cole Elementary, where half of the students are Hispanic and 90 percent are low-income.

New students from non-English-speaking homes are assessed for language proficiency and may be assigned to ELL services that include at least one hour of direct language instruction a day. By state law, classes are taught in English.

Big gains noted

In a development unthinkable a few years ago, MNPS last month touted ELL gains in six subject areas among elementary and high school students, following the release of Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test results.

Local officials spent even more time highlighting that fact that gains made by students who completed ELL services are outpacing gains made by their peers.

But reading scores, they acknowledge, remain flat.

Kevin Stacy, who has overseen Metro Schools’ ELL office since spring, listed ELL strategies: recruiting and hiring quality teachers certified in teaching English as a second language, offering such resources as reading clinics and efforts to better understand Nashville’s most diverse communities.

“If we win their hearts, we win their minds,” he said.

Some, though, are looking for a formal plan from the district to address a population that is likely to keep growing.

Metro school board member Will Pinkston, who has been critical of Metro Schools Director Jesse Register and whose district includes some of Nashville’s most ethnically diverse neighborhoods, has put forth a resolution to establish an English Learner Innovation report by next summer to identify best instructional practices, budgetary needs for more resources and ways to engage immigrant communities.

The resolution goes back to the school board for consideration Tuesday after being deferred earlier this month. Pinkston pointed to the Los Angeles Unified School District as producing the kind of work that should be replicated in Nashville — work, he noted, that is led by the school board.

“As a board, we have not had a single conversation during the past two years about our English learner strategy,” he said. “After asking the question for a couple of years straight, I think it’s time for the board to assert some authority in this area on behalf of our new American families and their kids.”

Register’s administration has rejected that claim, pointing to a district-led “living document” that is aligned with Register’s five-year strategic plan for the district as a whole. A committee of teachers began meeting in May to further discuss a plan, according to Metro’s chief academic officer, Jay Steele, and a parent advisory committee will begin meeting in October. An “executive committee” of city and community leaders is also in the works.

“Although we have reversed the negative trends,” Steele wrote in an email to board members that pointed to test gains by ELL students, “we still have much work to do and feel the action plan is on target.”

Metro Councilman Fabian Bedne, Nashville’s lone Hispanic elected official, applauded the city’s recent move to add a new prekindergarten center inside Casa Azafran, a community center on Nolensville Pike that serves Latinos.

He credited the No Child Left Behind era for putting Latino and ELL students in the forefront of conversation.

“From my experience with public schools, I’ve seen improvement in learning, but I don’t want to tell you that we have arrived,” Bedne said.

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

Enrollment by ethnicity for 2014-15 in Metro Nashville Public Schools

Out of 85,760 total students:

African-American — 44.2 percent

White — 31.3 percent

Hispanic/Latino — 19.7 percent

Asian — 4 percent

American Indian — 110 total

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islands — 93 total

Others — 202 total

Immigrant students at Metro schools

English language learners — 14 percent of the district

Students who come from non-English-speaking homes — 30 percent of the district

Languages at Metro schools — more than 140