Knox County schools scored grades similar to last year’s in Tennessee’s annual assessment. A few went up, a few went down and many stayed steady.
Knox County schools’ grades released Dec. 19 are distributed across the spectrum, from A to F. Just like a bell curve, the vast majority fall in the middle with B-C-D grades.
Six Knox County Schools received an F this year, compared to four last year. Eighteen scored a perfect A, compared to 19 last year.
The grading system was established by a 2016 law but its launch was delayed until last year. School administrators typically bristle against the Tennessee Department of Education system because they say a single letter grade can’t accurately reflect how a school is performing.
Critics argue the grades unfairly ignore the socioeconomic conditions of a school’s community.
“At Knox County Schools, we know that the incredible work of our schools can’t be captured by a single score or letter grade,” KCS Superintendent Jon Rysewyk said in a news release.
“Over the last two years we have identified the strategies that drive academic achievement, and now our focus is on making sure those strategies are happening in every classroom, every day,” he said. “As we continue to scale up progress across our organization, I remain extremely proud of our teachers, staff, and school leaders who go above and beyond to help students achieve their academic goals.”
Rysewyk stressed investments in teachers as a way to put the district on a growth trajectory. Administrators streamlined the hiring process and made a historic investment of $41 million to boost teachers and staff salaries to be on par with other districts.
The payoff from those changes are not reflected in these letter grades, which are a year behind and take into consideration performance from the 2023-2024 school year.
Under Rysewyk, Knox County Schools has ranked “satisfactory” by the Tennessee Department of Education for the second year in a row.
How were Tennessee’s school grades measured?
The grades are a product of student scores on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Tests, students’ academic growth from the year before and how much the school’s lowest-performing students grew academically in the last year.
For high schools, the grades also take into account college and career readiness.
Tennessee isn’t the only state using a letter grade system. A Tennessee Department of Education official cited Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas as states that assign schools grades.
The grades the Tennessee Department of Education awards to public schools each year are based on student test scores and academic growth – and at the high school level, college and career readiness as well.
Knox County Schools were graded by the state for the second year.
Knox County Schools letter grades
A grade
-
Hardin Valley Middle School
-
West Valley Middle School
B grade
-
Adrian Burnett Elementary
-
Brickey McCloud Elementary
-
Cedar Bluff Middle School
-
Northshore Elementary School
-
Pleasant Ridge Elementary
C grade
-
Knox County Virtual School
D grade
-
Mooreland Heights Elementary
-
South-Doyle Middle School
-
Whittle Springs Middle School
F grade
-
Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Academy
Areena Arora, data and investigative reporter for Knox News, can be reached by email at areena.arora@knoxnews.com. Follow her on X @AreenaArora and on Instagram @areena_news.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knox County Schools new academic grade ratings released by the state