Nashville School For Immigrant & Refugee Students Celebrates Graduates
A relatively new learning model is helping Nashville’s immigrant and refugee students succeed in school. Only in its second year, Newcomer Academy accepts students who have moved to Tennessee from another country and who have the lowest of the low English comprehension scores.
In just months, students rapidly learn to write and speak English, while also taking courses focused on science, technology, engineering and math.
“A lot of our students came in at the beginning of the school year and had trouble even writing their names in English and couldn’t make a complete sentence,” said Katie Fleming, a teacher at Newcomer Academy. “Now, they’re writing essays, they’re defending their opinions, they’re making argumentative statements and writing a thesis sentence.”
Newcomer Academy is a partnership between STEM Preparatory Academy and Metro Nashville Public Schools. Since 2016, it has served more than 130 students from more than 20 countries under the leadership of Dr. Kristin McGraner, the school’s director.
On Tuesday, the school celebrated its second class of fifth grade graduates, many of whom escaped extreme poverty and war to start a new life in Tennessee. [Continue Reading at NewsChannel5.com]
