Amqui Elementary School teacher Jennifer Figueredo tries to keep her tone steady as her frustration with third-grader Kameron Tuttle grows.

A veteran educator, Figueredo, 38, knows how to keep her cool, but Kameron is testing her.

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I’m stupid, he tells her when he gets a wrong answer on a reading test.

Her eyes furl. She lets loose — mommy style.

“Never say that again,” she whispers to the boy. “Never say you’re too stupid.”

Every year, Figueredo faces the task of helping struggling students like Kameron grow their reading levels and boost their confidence.

That task is especially hard in a school like Amqui in Madison, north of downtown, where more students are economically disadvantaged, the school doesn’t have a school nurse and substitute teachers are hard to find. Teachers like Figueredo sometimes feel as if they are also the students’ parents.

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More:Nashville city leaders vow to double third-grade literacy rate through community-wide effort

In Nashville, only 1 in 3 third-grade students leave the year with the ability to read at the state designated grade level, according to 2014-15 TCAP assessment data.

Across Tennessee, only 43 percent of students during that same time period headed into the fourth grade proficient readers.

And educators say a student’s socioeconomic status, the amount of time spent on instruction in the classroom and the quality of parental engagement are all crucial factors in boosting literacy and student achievement.

For proof, look just 23 miles away to Granbery Elementary School, where each class has a room mom and the PTO raises tens of thousands of dollars each year.

Granbery sits on the southern edge of Nashville and is one of the district's top academic performers. The school has low numbers of economically disadvantaged students and high diversity.

Granbery third-grade teacher Andrea Davis has no trouble building her students’ confidence. Parents are extremely involved inside and outside the classroom, and Davis sets high expectations.

Every morning, her students are greeted with a lesson or are required to read a book, Davis said.

“You’ll notice, I have to tell them to stop, because they’re like, ‘I just got to the good part in the Harry Potter series,’” she said.

About 64 percent Granbery students leave third grade on reading level. That's compared with 22 percent at Amqui.

Tennessee education leaders are vowing to boost the state's rate to 75 percent by 2025. Nashville civic, education, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders want to double the district's rate by 2025.

Without the appropriate literacy skills at a young age, students have a harder time succeeding later in school, graduating and even earning a higher lifetime income.

It’s a setback that can cause higher rates of incarceration and affect a city’s economy.

“We as a society will pay,” said Barbara Stengel, a Vanderbilt University expert in teaching. “Every black, brown, white or purple kid that knows how to read, it means they have the potential to be productive.

“If they aren’t, we pay more for prison. More for police.”

If Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Shawn Joseph doesn’t succeed, it will have major consequences for the district's youth and the city. It's why Joseph in his first year emphasized literacy across the district.

He introduced tests that can compare Nashville's progress to national efforts, provided literacy training and created goals to identify a student's individual needs.

"Our thoughts are really about creating a literacy-rich environment from birth and into schools," Joseph said.

The task isn’t easy.

To gauge the challenges at hand for Joseph and his administration, The Tennessean spent the 2016-17 school year in two third-grade classrooms at Amqui and Granbery elementary schools.

Over the nine months, Amqui teachers would face distractions and low parental involvement – all roadblocks to helping students learn. Granbery has fewer taxpayer resources but intense pressure of keeping its diverse students on track.

Different challenges. But for both schools, the goal is the same: Get students reading on grade level in a district that consistently has fallen behind the majority of the state.

Amqui Principal Lance High paces to the school’s front office on a late September day.

High, 35, wearing a uniform of khakis and a T-shirt, is coming from a routine morning visit to classrooms.

As he reaches the office, he is beet red. Sweat drips down his forehead.

“We don’t have enough substitutes to teach,” the second-year principal said with a heavy sigh.

In fact, there are no substitute teachers in the building for the sixth day in a row. And, High said, that’s a big deal.

One unexpected mishap — a missing substitute teacher, a school evacuation or a student absence — can derail a scheduled reading lesson.

On some days, it seems there are more mishaps than High and his staff can handle.

It's a different story for High's older brother, Chad High, Granbery’s principal.

Chad High, 40, wears dress slacks and a pressed, button-up shirt. He knows he is the face of a school where appearances matter.

“It’s up to us to maintain the reputation of this school,” he said.

He picks up trash, prunes bushes and plants flowers — all in an effort to maintain the school’s curb appeal. It’s an element that makes Granbery desirable for parents and employees.

“See, we have an unfair advantage here,” Chad High said about attracting personnel — whether they are substitutes or teachers. “People want to come work here. Not everyone is going to want to go to Amqui and deal with the challenges there.”

Lance High catches his breath. He knows missing one substitute to cover for an absent teacher has a ripple effect.

No teacher and no substitute means the students are split among different third-grade classrooms. Extra kids swell a classroom from 20 students to more than 30.

“It’s a day without reading instruction at a high level," Lance High said.

Amqui’s troubles stem from a shortage of substitute teachers across the district.

There is high demand and low supply. Lance High said getting qualified, temporary replacements to his school is also an issue of perception.

“Subs are so in demand, and if they have a bad experience, they tell people they’re never coming back,” he said. “They immediately write you off because there are so many other schools that need them.”

Amqui has its fair share of troubles. Academic test scores are below most other schools in Nashville and across Tennessee.

From the 2013 to the 2015 school years, Amqui’s scores on the state TCAP standardized test put it in the bottom 10 percent of Tennessee schools in terms of academic achievement.

Discipline issues are high, too, with 5 percent of the school’s more than 500 students facing suspensions at some point.

At Granbery, none of its more than 700 students were suspended.

Lance High was appointed Amqui’s principal for the 2015-16 school year to help boost achievement, but he was also a first-year principal with little experience in a high-need Title I school — schools that receive more funds because they serve more students who are in poverty.

Along with the high number of economically disadvantaged students, many are English-language learners.

It’s unclear how much progress Amqui has made under Lance High’s guidance because statewide assessments for elementary school students were canceled in the spring of 2016.

The 2016-17 state TNReady results were released Wednesday. Thirty-four percent of Tennessee students grades 3-8 read on level on this more rigorous standardized assessment. School and district TNReady data isn't available yet.

Lance High is sure of his school's progress.

“There was nowhere to go but up,” he said.

Davis, 31, has a sinus infection and an ulcer in her cornea near the start of the school year. She wears an eyepatch.

She stayed up all night but that isn’t stopping her from making it to class.

Her primary concern is figuring out how to “rock” the eyepatch so her third-graders think it's cool. They do.

Being up all night dealing with a health issue isn’t ideal — especially at critical early days of the year when Davis wants to build a routine and classroom rhythm.

“The first nine weeks is teaching them how to be third-graders,” Davis said. “You have to repeat over and over so they can eventually learn.”

The majority of her classroom and the school’s kids score high on the state’s TCAP standardized reading assessment. Discipline issues are minimal.

But not everything is a cakewalk. There are personal challenges for the kids and Davis. Midyear, Davis' father is diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Diversity is high, both a blessing and a challenge, Davis said. More than 30 languages are spoken. Davis' class reflects that diversity, including students with special needs.

“We have needs,” Principal Chad High said. “We have EL needs. We have socio-economic needs.”

Unlike Amqui, the school isn't a Title I school. About 74 percent of Amqui's students are considered economically disadvantaged in the 2015-16 school year. That figure was 23 percent for Granbery.

That doesn’t mean some students aren’t behind at Granbery, especially those who don't speak English at home. Chad High said his job is to bring awareness to that group.

“There is a huge misperception that we are all white,” Chad High said. The idea is especially prevalent because the school borders near Brentwood.

Aidan Pittman grins proudly as he carries off his haul from the Edmondson Pike Branch of the Nashville Public Library.

In hand: "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" and the "Sea of Monsters."

“They all love to read,” Olivia Pittman said of her bookworm son Aidan and two twin daughters. “I started to read to them when they were babies and they’ve always been around books.”

Pittman’s involvement with her kids extends past the library. She is the PTA president at Granbery and sometimes walks her kids to school.

Time spent on a child’s education is crucial for their development and reinforces school instruction, said Doug Fuchs, a Vanderbilt University professor of special education.

“In the absence of family involvement, there is a kind of chasm that sometimes occurs,” Fuchs said.

As PTA president, Pittman is involved in almost every aspect of coordinating parent activities and fundraising. Chad High jokes she needs Granbery office hours.

“The teachers really depend on us for the financial element at the school,” Pittman said. “We have a lot of parent involvement and everyone pitches in, whether it is collecting Box Tops (for Education) or fundraising.”

Granbery receives $5,625 per student, a figure $1,500 lower than what Amqui receives per child.

The money the PTA raises fills the gap, and Chad High spends the funds on books, gifts for teachers and school improvements.

“We would be hurting without our PTA. I went to a meeting with a $20,000 wish list and they completed it,” Chad High said. “Everything I asked for, they said yes.”

Inside the drab Archwood Meadows complex one early morning, Corey Murphy readies his son Cortez Murphy and his girlfriend’s second-grade son for school. Cortez is a third-grade student in Figueredo's Amqui classroom.

The glow of the television lights the sparsely decorated white walls, while the half-awake boys watch an episode of “Teen Titans.”

“Do y’all want some eggs?” Murphy asks the pair, dressed in Polo shirts.

They reply, half awake, “Yes, sir.”

Three days out of the week, the boys ride the bus because Murphy needs to arrive early at Nordstrom Grill where he works. The traffic-filled commute is across the city in Green Hills.

Mondays and Tuesdays are the only days Murphy can take them to school.

Murphy and the boys moved into the Archwood Meadows complex about a mile from Amqui with his girlfriend a few months into the school year.

Cortez was at Buena Vista Elementary School before the move, and Murphy said discipline issues at the school were a distraction for his son.

Cortez entered into the classroom reading behind the majority of his classmates.

“He’s good at math but struggles with reading,” Murphy said of his son. “Ms. Figueredo has been good for him.”

While the PTO fundraising is a financial plus for Granbery, the real benefit is the parents in the building who aid teachers day to day.

“They are constantly in the classroom. We have room moms,” Davis said. “They really do make our school go 'round. … Without our PTA, we wouldn’t have as many resources.”

Case in point, at the end of the year, parents are in the hallways decorating bricks awarded to students for reading books and taking tests. Students earn points for the tests and a spot on the school’s Accelerated Reader program “Wall of Fame.”

Aidan earned 185.6 points and has a DragonVale-themed brick around the corner from Davis’ classroom. DragonVale is a smartphone game based around raising dragons.

Kids and parents take pride in the “Wall of Fame” achievement, said LaTara Sturgis, while decorating her son’s Harry Potter-themed brick.

Sturgis and her family moved from Auburn, Ala., and specifically chose Granbery.

“We make sure the school is providing the right opportunities and enrichment so the kids can be their best,” Sturgis said.

Not every parent at Amqui has the time they crave for their kids, including Murphy. He is able to sometimes rearrange his schedule to watch his boys play football or help them with homework.

Many parents work longer hours at jobs with schedules that are too demanding or inflexible.

Tonya Lewis is one of the few presences in Figueredo’s classroom throughout the year. She is the aunt of student Sha’Maria Thompson, and her sister is a manager at an area McDonald's. The mom works long hours, Lewis said.

"There have been times where she has had to take my niece with her to work. A 9-year-old needs to be outside playing," Lewis said.

The tough work schedules of Amqui parents are a constant concern for teachers.

Before the end of the school year, all of the school’s third-grade educators huddle in a room. Despite getting more tax dollars than Granbery, the group said there are rarely enough resources to address student needs.

What the teachers really want is more parental involvement.

“Our parents are so overwhelmed with life, working, multiple children or whatever, that it is hard for them to be here,” said Daryl Wilkinson, an Amqui third-grade teacher. “It’s hard for them to participate.”



As they gather together, they think of ideas to get parents into the school. One: create a reading program that opens up the library during the summer, similar to the Accelerated Reading program at Granbery.

After all, something must happen to boost student literacy rates, said Amanda Page, the school’s literacy coach.

Reading ability starts at an early age and is built over years, she said.

“The 15 minutes a night of reading in third grade is great, but when you’re working with a deficiency of not having exposure to language early — that whole thing of trying to get around the track in one year — it will never be enough.”

Amqui and Granbery principals and third-grade teachers face challenges throughout the year to improve reading skills.

But one thing is clear: The frequency of those challenges — the lack of substitutes, the late drop-offs and even later pickups, for instance — for Amqui makes the job that much harder for Lance High and his team.

Every educator in the building said they are up to the challenge. Though Lance High departed at the end of the school year to Smith Springs Elementary in southern Nashville, he said it was because of the long commute, not the job.

“Something had to give,” he said of the struggle to balance work and family life.

Personal issues also affect Figueredo, Amqui's third-grade teacher. She undergoes chemotherapy for breast cancer in the first semester — she is now in remission.

Her family of students help her get through the toughest parts and they are excited when she loses her hair.

“They were big cheerleaders,” Figueredo said.

Not every day is a challenge, though.

When days are calm and there is little worry of upcoming assessments — a constant concern for educators at a school near the bottom academically in the state — Figueredo gives pep talks to students or teaches them what she said are her fun lessons.

One is on “How to Eat Fried Worms” and includes a taste test of sauces on hot dogs cut into worm-sized strips.

Still, the disruptions are plentiful, such as a February morning when a student in third-grade teacher Sharon Enlow’s classroom throws up. An exodus into Figueredo’s classroom across the hall ensues.

There is no nurse at Amqui. The cleanup takes most of the morning.

The moment is just one of many that eats away at minutes dedicated to teaching kids reading — let alone extra lessons that could boost their skills.

“You’re not missing anything,” Figueredo said, looking out at the crowded room after the throw-up incident. “I can’t teach with 50 kids in my classroom.”

By contrast, Davis, the Granbery third-grade teacher, begins an early-May day with a lesson in cursive writing. Her classroom rarely breaks routine, even on some of the hardest days.

Writing script isn’t a requirement for her third-graders yet, but she wants her students to get ahead on next year.

“The pressure is on at Granbery because they come to you so high for the most part,” Davis said.

The students work quietly. Occasionally, they ask questions of each other, rustle papers or slide their across the white tile, which creates a loud squeak.

"They all work really hard, and I am proud of them," she said.

Figueredo rarely has the time to start instruction first thing in the morning or think about next year.

She focuses on the day ahead, greets every student individually, asks them about their night and feeds them breakfast. She is their teacher.

But it doesn’t stop there.

"I get called 'mama' a lot."

Reach Jason Gonzales at jagonzales@tennessean.com and on Twitter @ByJasonGonzales.

About this story

The Tennessean spent the 2016-17 school year in two Nashville classrooms to gauge the challenges teachers and the community face in boosting literacy.