There were things for Knox County Schools to celebrate in the State Report Card data released on Friday, and celebrate they did. At a news conference at Austin-East High School Friday afternoon, Superintendent Jim McIntyre highlighted the gains:
-- A 5.2 percent rise in the school system's four-year graduation rate, to 86.6 percent. This was partly due to a change in methodology, but even without that McIntyre said there would have been and 3.4 percent rise.
-- The improvement of several schools' performances on state tests, allowing them to qualify for the state's"Good Standing" designation after having been previously marked as struggling. They are East Knox County, Mooreland Heights, South Knoxville, and Spring Hill elementary schools; Bearden, Karns, and Powell middle schools; and Karns and West high schools.
-- And several other schools showed improvement even though they are still on the state's watch list. Those included Austin-East, which has been designated for "reconstitution" by the state, meaning it could be taken over by the state Department of Education. But A-E met state standards for "Adequate Yearly Progress" in its "leading indicator" areas of reading and language arts, which McIntyre said makes it likely the state will wait to see if improvements continue. Two straight years of those results could move it off the reconstitution list.
-- The improvement of several schools' performances on state tests, allowing them to qualify for the state's"Good Standing" designation after having been previously marked as struggling. They are East Knox County, Mooreland Heights, South Knoxville, and Spring Hill elementary schools; Bearden, Karns, and Powell middle schools; and Karns and West high schools.
-- And several other schools showed improvement even though they are still on the state's watch list. Those included Austin-East, which has been designated for "reconstitution" by the state, meaning it could be taken over by the state Department of Education. But A-E met state standards for "Adequate Yearly Progress" in its "leading indicator" areas of reading and language arts, which McIntyre said makes it likely the state will wait to see if improvements continue. Two straight years of those results could move it off the reconstitution list.
On the other hand, the system as a whole slipped down the state's scale from "Targeted" to "High Priority," because of ongoing struggles to improve results in several areas. Those include reading scores for special-education students and math scores for K-8 African-American students. McIntyre said the Report Card was helpful in identifying those problems. "We can't tolerate achievement gaps based on defined categories of students," he said.
This was the first State Report Card issued using new, more rigorous standards adopted by Tennessee last year. Overall, Knox County scored B's in reading, math, science, and social studies, compared to statewide scores of C's in all of those areas except for a B in social studies.
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