Glenn Enhanced Option School is located on Cleveland Street in East Nashville, a few blocks from Ellington Parkway. It sits in a low-income neighborhood of rental duplexes, older homes in various stages of disrepair and decay that can be purchased for as little as $20,000, and the Sam Levy Homes, one of Nashville’s oldest and largest public housing projects.

Glenn, which covers grades pre-K through 4, is distinguished in many ways. But one of its more startling statistics is the number of its students who fall below the poverty level. Approximately 95 percent of the school’s 360 children are considered to be living below poverty level—a higher percentage than at any other elementary school in the city. (The income difference between those students and the remaining 5 percent who don’t strictly qualify as poverty level is actually minuscule, meaning that for all intents and purposes almost the entire student body is poor.) As such, it’s classified as a “Title I school,” a designation that applies to any school where 50 percent or more of the enrolled children sign up for the free and reduced lunch program.

The school itself is a symbol of community pride—a 12-year-old, one-and-a-half-story building of simple yet contemporary design constructed of brick, stone and glass block. Everything is sparkling-clean and well kept, but Spartan and devoid of any extras or decorative touches, save a couple of live plants in the office. The grounds of the school are neat and tidy, but with only a shrub or two of landscaping. A fenced playground with old, steel equipment is in one corner of the property, which is bordered on two sides by alleys. On one corner of Cleveland and Meridian is the large Ray of Hope Community Church, built as the Meridian Methodist Church in 1939. Across the street from the church is Fire Engine Co. 3. The burned-out shell of a home that sat adjacent to Glenn has now been razed, and the empty lot is covered with gravel and mulch.

But it’s what’s been happening inside the school that represents a series of small, significant triumphs for this neighborhood. Until the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year, Glenn was a middle school, serving fifth and sixth grades. Then, in 1999, Glenn—along with Park Avenue and Napier schools, which both fall under the Title I designation—was selected to be an enhanced-option elementary school. School officials sought to design an educational program to meet the instructional needs of indigent children who scored poorly on achievement tests. The elements of the program would include a pupil-teacher ratio of 15-to-1 (compared to the standard ratio of 20-to-1), flexible student grouping according to learning styles and needs, and an extended school year that would add 35 learning days to the Metro calendar of 180 days.

Donna Youree, who was then serving as principal of Whitsett Elementary School and who has spent much of her education career at Title I schools, recalls seeing the job posting for the three new principal positions. She was intrigued. “I applied because I truly believe that all children can learn, and can learn at a high level,” she says. “Their economic level should not determine whether or not they can learn. And I do not believe in waiting until they fail, and then starting remedial work.”

Youree was asked by Bill Wise, then director of schools, to take the position at Glenn. She called a like-minded colleague, Sharon Elrod, then Title I coordinator at Stratford High, to ask her advice. As it turned out, Elrod had just taken the position as Title I curriculum coordinator at Glenn, and that only got Youree more excited about the challenge of running a poor school. “We had always felt that if we could have a school together, we could make a huge difference.”

Youree got to work hiring a staff. Applying teachers had to bring in portfolios with their résumés, lesson plans and letters of recommendation—and preferably they’d also have some experience and success working with at-risk and Title I students. There were also intangible qualities they had to bring to the job.

“I wanted a diverse staff, but one that knew how hard they would have to work,” Youree says. “This was all brand-new, and I was asking them to jump into the deep, deep ocean with me. I told them I didn’t need them to feel sorry for these children; you could do that till the cows came home. I needed them to teach these children to read, write and do math.

“Looking at the components of the enhanced option idea, I knew if we got the instructors and the instruction right, everything else would fall into place. I do not believe in allowing poverty to be a determining factor in educating a child; the determining factor is your staff.”

Mission possible

On Oct. 23, the Metro school board approved a new mission statement for Nashville schools: “Our purpose is to do whatever it takes for all students to acquire the knowledge and skills to become productive, responsible citizens.” This replaced the one adopted four years earlier: “The mission of the Metro Nashville public schools is to ensure, through the teaching of a high quality curriculum, that all students attain knowledge and skills to become productive and responsible citizens.”

School board and community members laud the straightforward language of the new statement, particularly the directive to “do whatever it takes.” Sarah Knestrick, education vice president for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, says the “whatever it takes” slogan means “there aren’t going to be any excuses.” And, school board member Pam Garrett says, “That’s just something you can hang your hat on, and it’s something we can live by. I think it’s going to become a mantra for all of us.”

The catchy phrase is making waves in the community and generating enthusiasm for the daunting mission and often thankless job of public educators. Metro teachers may appreciate the lack of verbosity in the new mission statement, but the language should not be especially new to them. A sizable number of the 4,719 full-time certified educators employed by the system have been doing “whatever it takes” for years now—day in, day out, during lunch, evenings, weekends and summers—in and out of the classroom and with limited resources. State Comptroller John Morgan recently released figures showing that Tennessee’s K-12 spending now ranks last among Southern states. Tennessee’s spending levels are nearly 20 percent behind the national average. The national average expenditure per student is $7,436; in Davidson County, it’s $7,038, a figure that actually exceeds the state average of $6,066.

With a state budget crisis imminent, and our legislators inclined to bury their heads in the sand, the financial forecast for K-12 education is not bright. Which means that, more than ever, every school, every principal, every staff member and every teacher will be called upon to do whatever it takes.

No doubt, developing “productive, responsible citizens” begins to a large degree in every child’s home, but “acquiring knowledge and skills” typically begins when a child enters the formal education system. Kindergarten is the starting gate for most children, but it is in first grade where children acquire the primary skills that lay the foundation for facilitating that child’s path through the educational system.

“First grade is probably the hardest grade for children, and an incredible responsibility for teachers,” says Teresa Dennis, principal of Percy Priest Elementary School. “There is an awesome amount to be taught and mastered. Most reading skills are learned in the first grade, and those are the windows to everything else. Teachers face such a challenge in the fact that they begin with such a tremendous range of ability and readiness, from children who are already reading to those who cannot recognize their letters. It is imperative that we as educators recognize the gap between children who have advantages and those who do not, and devise ways to meet their needs and close that gap.”

Within every school and every classroom, teachers are confronted with children of varying levels of need and ability. In some classrooms, the gap is wider than others; in some schools, the needs are overwhelming. Those needs are usually, though not always, predicated on a child’s socioeconomic level.

The challenge of meeting those socioeconomic needs is first addressed through the Title I designation, which makes schools eligible for federal funding. Though at least 50 percent of the students at such schools are supposed qualify for the free and reduced lunch program, that percentage is flexible, according to Patsy Boyce, Metro schools Title I assistant coordinator. This year, to qualify for Title I funds, a Metro elementary school must count 47 percent of its children in the free and reduced lunch program. Percentages change at other grade levels, with the number of qualifying schools decreasing as the grade level goes up.

The amount of Title I funds allotted to each school is based on that percentage, with a certain amount being designated per child. Thus a school with a higher percentage of poverty level students receives more Title I money. The use of the funds must follow federal guidelines and can be applied in the following ways: personnel; staff development; equipment, materials and supplies as they relate to reading, math and language; and programs designed to encourage and enhance parental involvement. Money directed toward equipment and materials usually goes to technology, such as computers and software, or materials and supplies that enhance the learning experience, such as books or dry erase boards and markers. It cannot be applied to the purchase of classroom decorations. Each school is permitted to allocate Title I funds within those guidelines as they fit particular needs.

In Nashville, some 17,000 children are enrolled in the 67 traditional K-4 public elementary schools (not including magnet or special education schools). Of these, 49 have been classified in the 2001-02 school year as Title I schools. In Metro, the school with the highest percentage of students considered to be at poverty level is Caldwell Early Learning Center, with 98.95 percent of its students in the free and reduced lunch program; Caldwell only enrolls pre-K and kindergarten.

On the affluent side of the coin, the elementary schools with the lowest number of poor students are Harpeth Valley Elementary (3.82 percent), Julia Green Elementary (9.42 percent) and Percy Priest Elementary (11.91 percent). What those percentages mean in hard numbers, for example, is that of its 386 students, Percy Priest has 46 students in the free and reduced lunch program.

Meanwhile, the elementary school with the highest percentage is Glenn. Its success, or failure, in teaching the poorest kids in the system will depend a lot on instructors like Phyllis Phillips and Tywanna Peoples.

Teaching the toughest

Phyllis Phillips was born and raised in Nashville and educated in Metro schools, graduating from Whites Creek High School. She received her bachelor’s degree from Tennessee State University and a master’s degree at Trevecca Nazarene University. She comes from a family of educators, and she always knew she wanted to be a teacher.

“Someone asked my brother once how long I had been teaching, and he told them 'All her life!’ When I was a little girl, I used to line my dolls and stuffed animals up and teach to them. It is all I have ever wanted to do. And I always wanted to teach first grade.”

Her first teaching job was a first-grade class at Cole Elementary in Antioch. She spent 12 years there. “It was a very traditional classroom setting, with traditional teaching methods, though we did some grouping within each classroom. It was a blue-collar school, very diverse. We had several ESL classes and bussed-in children from the Edgehill housing project. We had tremendous parent support, a great PTA, lots of fundraisers. Whatever you wanted or needed in your classroom, you got. Lots of the parents didn’t have time to come into the classroom, or a lot of money to donate, but all of them gave in any way they could. And at Christmas, for birthdays, at the end of the year, we all got presents and gift certificates. You couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Phillips met Tywanna Peoples when they worked together in a Metro summer program called Starfish. They clicked as friends and shared the same interest in innovative teaching programs. It was Peoples who told her about the openings at Glenn as it was transitioning into the enhanced option concept. “She called me and said, 'Phil, we have to do this.’ She explained the concepts to me. I loved Cole and didn’t really want to leave, but then I thought, 'Let’s see, I get to work with Tywanna, and I will learn so much.’ So I applied.”

She and Peoples spent weekends and much of that summer throwing around ideas and designing a program. “We were told to come up with our own thing, whatever we thought would work for us. We took a lot of what we had learned at Starfish and decided to do rotations.”

In rotations, all children are assigned to a home base teacher, then split into teams according to their needs and abilities. The students then go to math, reading/writing and phonics “rotations” with their team. Each teacher is assigned a specialty—Phillips’ is math—and sees every student for a rotation every day.

That first year, Peoples and Phillips were joined in the first-grade team by Lovvie White, who had taught first grade at Percy Priest. “We thought we were ready and knew what to expect, but we were blown away by how great the needs of these students were. We zeroed in on their style of learning,” Phillips says. It took them about two weeks to evaluate the data and determine the groups, then they just dove in. “That first year was a ball; we were trying so many new things. One day, Tywanna heard me singing the sounds of phonics to my class and said, 'Wait a minute, we all need this,’ and she brought all the children into my classroom. We still do that now, though another teacher does phonics now. She is a better performer than I am!”

The first-grade team used a variety of approaches to teach their children: kinesthetic movement, visuals, auditory and verbal cues. They made up songs and dances, all with the goal of grabbing and keeping their students’ attention long enough to teach them the lesson at hand. The trio knew they were making great strides, and were actually looking forward that spring to testing their progress and seeing the results. Unfortunately, the test scores were not what they’d hoped for.

“Dr. Youree thought they were great, but we were pretty devastated. The first grade did OK, but we thought we would do much better, and we were so disappointed. We scored right at about 50 percent, but we were expecting 70s and 80s. I didn’t realize the time it would take. There was a lot more to do to catch up.”

Youree had a more realistic view. “It was a brand-new program, for one thing. We still had fifth- and sixth-grade students in our school as we were transitioning. We had not yet had the benefit of the additional 35 teaching days, and the children that first-grade team got had not been in our kindergarten program. They were expecting a lot out of themselves, and that is what I want, but I knew they were on the right track.”

Sure enough, those students were well prepared for their next year at school. Diane Willey, now in her first year as a first-grade teacher at Glenn, spent her first two years there teaching second grade. “The second-grade class my second year there was a dream class,” she remembers. “It was like teaching a third-grade class—they were so ready after spending first grade with that team. I knew it was working.”

Far and wide

The gap between schools at the bottom and top of the socioeconomic scale in Nashville is wide; likewise, so is the gap in test scores. It is a correlation, says Paul Changas, the coordinator of student assessment for Metro public schools, that educators have long recognized and strive to narrow. “It is clear that students in high-poverty areas score low, and students in affluent areas score high,” he says. “The goal is to find the means to close that gap.”

Every spring, Metro students in grades three through eight take state-mandated tests called TCAP (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program) in reading, language arts, math, science and social studies. In Metro, the tests are also administered to first- and second-graders, but more as a means for children to become accustomed to testing, to acquire a base-line score, and for teachers in the next grade level to assess data on incoming students. The results of the testing on third- through eighth-graders are tallied in two categories: achievement and value-added scores. The latter measures annual progress. The goal is for students to receive their individual achievement scores in the final report card of the school year; these, along with value-added scores, are then compiled for the entire state and released in the fall.

Harpeth Valley, Julia Green and Percy Priest are consistently among the top-scoring K-4 schools in the system. Glenn, which became an elementary school in 1999 after a decade as a middle school, has been among the lowest scoring schools.

But while test scores are an important measure when it comes time to assess student achievement and school accountability, they don’t tell the whole story. Recently, a commission created by the National Education Association (NEA) and four other education groups asserted that testing does not help students learn and that major changes in tests are needed. “In a growing number of states, it seems as though tests are taking over common sense,” NEA president Bob Chase said when releasing the commission’s report. “They are driving and distorting the entire classroom experience of teachers and students.”

Vincent Ferrandino, executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, adds, “I challenge you to ask any educator, anywhere in the world, how to determine if a child is learning what is being taught, and if he or she is developing socially and emotionally. Not one will say looking at test scores alone can do this.”

“It is hard to assess strictly from test results what a child knows,” says Dennis, Percy Priest’s principal. “A test may show they can read at a certain level, but his teacher knows that the student is not reading at a level to comprehend his science or social studies book.”

TCAP testing is not the only academic assessment children undergo during the school year. Leah Roberts, who has been teaching for more than 20 years and has been a first-grade teacher at Percy Priest since 1984, pulls out two thick notebooks, one labeled CCRP (Comprehensive Communications/Reading Program) and one labeled MIP (Math Improvement Program). “We test every child on a total of 122 different skills that are listed here,” Roberts explains, “and we have 180 days, more or less, to do it.”

There are more skills for first grade than any other grade level; some, but not all, are skills that must be mastered before a child can move on to second grade.

“Back when I started teaching, we did not have all this testing,” Roberts says. “The children had more time, we had more time for them. Every time you test, in my view, you lose teaching time. Professionally, that has been the biggest change in what I do and how I do it.”

Phyllis Phillips says the testing is perhaps more helpful to her than to her students. “Testing helps evaluate me,” she says. “It shows me my area of weakness—what I need to do and change in order to meet those needs that are not being met. It is also one way, but certainly not the only way, to show what children have learned and what they need.”

But like it or not, Tennessee is one of only 15 states in the country that tests students in the first two grades. And Metro, at least, probably will continue to do so, with the hiring this year of Pedro Garcia as Nashville’s schools director. In a recent interview with the Scene, Garcia laid it on the line, vowing that within four years, he can raise test scores, develop many of the system’s poorly trained teachers and principals, and reform a central administration that he repeatedly refers to now as “dysfunctional.”

In fact, Garcia pledges that within the year, Metro will see a 3- to 7-percentile point increase in test scores.

The person Garcia is most counting on to implement and oversee an overhaul in standards and testing is Sandra Johnson, who came to Nashville at his request to take the newly created post of chief instructional officer for Metro schools. Under the five-year master plan now being developed with the school board, instruction will change to a system of rigorous grade-by-grade standards. Ongoing and frequent testing will be used to assess student achievement of the standards; instruction will be based on what teachers learn from those assessments. “All students do not learn in the same ways,” Johnson said in a presentation last week. “We need to figure out different ways to teach and reach all students, and take the necessary time.”

Garcia’s central philosophy is that all children, no matter what their background, can learn. Whatever it takes. “The teacher I am going to have a problem with is the teacher who makes a socioeconomic excuse for why his students aren’t learning,” Garcia told the Scene. “I’m going to have lots of problems with that teacher.”

Garcia will find no argument with Youree, the principal at Glenn, or her staff of handpicked teachers.

Year two

The first-grade team made changes and adjustments in the enhanced option program’s second year at Glenn: Youree changed some of their assignments; White looped up to second grade (staying with her home base class); and the school introduced Instructional Focus, a method in which the teacher focuses on the primary lesson of the day during the first 15 minutes of each rotation. The school also had its first extended learning program in the summer of 2000, counting about 80 percent participation. And every grade level, not just first, broke into teams and began rotations.

Much was asked from the teachers, who in turn asked a lot from their students. Metro kindergartners, for example, are expected to know the alphabet and 12 consonant sounds by the time they move to first grade, a standard the teachers at Glenn find ridiculously low; their goal is to develop beginning readers by the time the children leave kindergarten.

When the test results came in from the 2000-2001 school year, Youree gathered all of her teachers in the library. “We were sitting in there praying,” remembers Carnella Mitchell, a 21-year teaching veteran now in her second year at Glenn. “I thought, 'Lord, you turned water into wine, please help our sweet babies.’ ”

Phillips remembers how anxious all of the teachers were. “When Dr. Youree told us our scores, we had improved so much. The teachers were crying, we were so happy. That was the best present we could ask for—that was my gift certificate.”

“Glenn’s scores are still low, but they came back higher last year,” Changas says. “It is a dramatic improvement, and clearly shows they are doing good things, the right things, and moving in the right direction. It is good news.”

A majority of Glenn students again took advantage of the extended school year in the summer of 2001, and heading into their third year this fall, teachers were anticipating smooth sailing and even more improvements in test scores. But the school’s zoning changed for the second time in two years, and Glenn received 100 brand-new students to start the 2001-02 year.

The difference between Glenn students and the newcomers was immediately apparent, in terms of ability, needs and discipline. “Of the 45 Glenn kindergartners who came up to first grade, only five were nonreaders,” Phillips says. “Most of the first-graders new to Glenn [28 children] were nonreaders. In our top two teams, all but four were Glenn kindergartners. Their work habits are completely different; our students are able to get focused quickly and don’t get upset or anxious about new assignments. And discipline is another big difference; we have very high expectations here and a fairly strict routine. That has been an issue for our new children.”

At Glenn, all students memorize and are expected to follow The Glenn Creed: “I will be responsible for what I say and do. I will respectfully listen to you. I will respect the feelings, property and rights of myself and others. I will be in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. I am an Eagle. I have the right stuff!” Glenn teachers wrote the creed and chose the eagle as their school symbol, with the goal of inspiring their children to “soar above the rest.”

Posted in large letters in the building’s main entranceway are the school rules, which also define noise level zones: Zone Zero is no talking, Zone One is whispering, Zone Two is conversational voice and Zone Three is outside voice. When a Glenn teacher calls for a particular zone, students know what is expected.

Time-outs—in which children are sent to sit quietly against the wall of the classroom for a set period of time—are frequently used for even the smallest infraction. Glenn also requests that students wear uniforms—white shirt, dark pants—every day but Friday. Uniform counts are taken every morning. Student folders go home every day with work or notes to stay home, and work or notes to bring back. There is also a monthly calendar, which lists upcoming conferences or activities, as well as notations of behavior infractions that must be initialed by the adult at home.

But positive reinforcement is also the rule. Hugs and high-fives are disbursed with far more frequency than time-outs, and children are commended for seemingly the smallest accomplishments.

Besides the strict disciplinary code, the staff and teachers at Glenn employ every resource within their reach: team grouping, rotations, Instructional Focus and other unconventional teaching methods; an integration of special areas—art, music and PE—into reading and math rotations; on-site Encore (the Metro program for gifted children); hourlong daily planning sessions; biweekly psychiatric counseling for students courtesy of Vanderbilt University; a full-time school nurse; a full-time technology coordinator; peer tutoring sessions; a Juvenile Court officer who, in exchange for office space, donates his time as a mentor; free before- and after-school care; neighborhood partnerships with Ray of Hope Community Church, Second Harvest Food Bank and The Salvation Army Red Shield Family Initiative; and donations wherever staff and faculty can find them.

“It amazes me that some people complain about and are envious of our Title I money,” says principal Youree. “We get that because we have no money, no fundraisers, no PTA, so to speak. Title I pays for some things, but can’t pay for carpet in the classrooms for students to sit on, or anything to brighten up our halls, or a mat for our front door for children to wipe their feet on, or rockers for our teachers. I go to my church, and the teachers go to theirs, and ask the congregation to donate school supplies for the children [whose] own parents can’t buy them. We had a bake sale when I first came here, and it raised $100. That was all of our extra money for the year. I know what kind of contributions more affluent schools get. If I were to get a check for $1,000, I could make that money go a long, long way. But we work with what we have, and we make no excuses.

“Zoning changes have been one of our biggest challenges every year; it makes it harder to produce consistency. It is taking a while for the new students to assimilate,” Youree adds. “But we were all seeing big improvements by the end of the first grading period, and by December, we are confident we will all be on track. I have never worked with a group of teachers that was so determined, that has such a focused goal and strong commitment to make this work. It has been that way since day one, and has never wavered.”

Says Phillips: “These children have so many things to deal with. Many have just one parent at home, and typically that parent is completely overwhelmed. A lot are being raised by grandparents, who have health issues. These children often have to take care of their younger siblings, fix their own dinner, gather their own clothes. They have so much responsibility and have to grow up a lot faster than other 6-year-olds. I can’t fail them for not doing their homework if they don’t have any help at home. So we find time during the day to do it, and we work extra hard with that child.”

Phillips says she wouldn’t want to do anything else. To see a child who couldn’t recognize all the letters in the alphabet, but who can now read a book independently, is plenty of reward for her. “I knew the situation I was facing and that the needs were great,” she says. “I look at this as an opportunity; we all do. We all chose to be here at Glenn, and I truly believe we are making a difference with these children, in this school and in this community.”