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(November 12, 2004): The state of Tennessee released school report cards today,
and the Knox County School system continued to have a strong showing.
The school system maintained its overall status as a B
school system but demonstrated exceptional performance
in several areas.
“I am very excited about our high school and writing
performance,” said Dr. Charles Lindsey, superintendent
of Knox County Schools. “Our writing evaluation has
increased to an A at every level. We have worked hard at
this and the students and teachers should feel proud of
the accomplishment. As a group our high school students
are also at over 90 percent proficiency in all evaluated
areas, and our dropout rate has fallen to 7.7 percent;
the lowest level in memory.”
The report card graded student academic performance in
Kindergarten through the eighth-grade. The school system
received a B from the state in both math and reading/language
and a C in both science and social studies. This is consistent
with performance is previous years and is above the state
average level of performance.
“We have shown significant increases in proficiency
in most all subject areas by most of the demographic groups
identified by the No Child Left Behind legislation,” said
Lindsey. “However, I am concerned about the performance
in reading for our African-American and economically disadvantaged
students. We still have a way to go, but I feel the programs
are in place to help these students reach their potential
in this area. We just have to give the programs time to
be fully effective.”
While the school system’s dropout rate has fallen
to the lowest level in memory at 7.7 percent, the graduation
rate is measured at 78.1 percent. The difference in these
numbers lies in the fact that the system does not receive
any credit for students who obtain a system sponsored GED,
a special education diploma or a certificate of attendance.
“While the state report card reflects that about
one third of our teachers are highly qualified, well over
half have completed the process of validating their training
to be recognized as highly qualified under the No Child
Left Behind act,” said Dr. Donna Wright, assistant
superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “We
are on track to meet the requirement to have all teachers
validated by 2006. All of our teachers are properly licensed
by the state, but the added requirements of NCLB have caused
us to have to adjust the way we manage certified personnel
assignments and training. We have exceptional teachers
in this system as in evidenced by the above average level
of performance we maintain on less than average funding.”
“I am extremely concerned about the level of funding
that we are able to provide for the student and teacher
in the classroom,” said Lindsey. “We have had
to cut our budgets significantly over the last two years,
and this is reflected in our loss of ground against the
state per pupil funding level. The Knox County per pupil
expenditure is $260 below the state average,” he
said. “This represents $13.5 million in annual funding
the school system is not receiving. If Knox County were
funded at even the state per pupil average, the system’s
ability to serve students as well as to hire and retain
highly qualified teachers would be enhanced immeasurably.” |
