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The Grand Ole' Nashville Schools

Nashville Schools have been around for aproficient in English is less than 3.2 years.
long, long time. The first of the public
Nashville Schools, the Hume School, wasNashville Schools District Director, Dr.
opened on February 26, 1855. A three-storyPedro E. Garcia, has led an in-depth
brick building, it housed 12 teachers andevaluation of what needs to be done to bring
served all grades. The building is still inthe district to the next level of excellence.
use today, as the Hume-Fogg Magnet High,"Our mission to educate all children needs to
serving 874 students in grades 9-12. Thego beyond the school and include parents and
oldest of the Nashville Schools presently inthe entire community. [Nashville Schools] are
operation is the Robertson Academy. Thisa standards-based district. We will continue
school can trace its roots back to an act ofto expect our teachers to teach the
the United States Congress approved on Aprilstandards."
17, 1806. The act provided for an academy in
each of the state's (then) 27 counties. TheLike the rest of the nation the Nashville
Nashville School has operated continuouslySchools are looking for ways to meet
since that time, and today serves as thecompliance with the No Child Left Behind
center for the Nashville Schools' gifted and(NCLB) act. Districts with large groups of
talented  program.foreign speaking students, like the Nashville
Schools, are especially challenged because
Today, the Nashville Schools comprise theall tests are administered in English. The
49th largest urban school district in themeans that an ELL third grade student who is
United States. The district covers Davidsonintroduced to English for the first time is
County, an area of 525 square miles. Theexpected to take and pass the same test as
system consists of 74 elementary schools, 35her native English speaking peers. And
middle schools, 15 high schools, 4despite the claim that the teachers of
alternative and non-traditional learningNashville Schools are able to bring students
centers, 3 special education schools, and 2to English proficiency in just over 3 years,
charter schools. It serves approximatelymost language experts claim that true
74,000 students, and employs around 5,700acquisition of a second language takes 5-7
teachers  and  4,000  support  staff.years. This has some of the educators in
Nashville Schools scratching their heads and
Students enrolled in the Nashville Schoolsasking if NCLB should be altered to meet the
come from over 80 different countries, andrealities of ELL and special needs students.
represent 27% of all English LanguageThe national debate between setting immovable
Learners (ELL) in the state of Tennessee. Duestandards and meeting the realities of
to the hard work of the teachers, the averagestudent needs is echoed precisely in the
time it takes for a student to becomehalls of the Nashville Schools.



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