Tracie Sanger for School Board 2nd District

Knox County Schools will suspend & cancel all remaining state TNReady assessments in grades 3-8.

Congratulations to Inskip Elementary for having the much needed addition to their school approved this evening. This will provide 14 new classrooms and a media center. Their enrollment has increased 15% over the last 5 years. I am so glad that they will get the help/relief they should have gotten last year.

HASLAM PROPOSES additional Flexibility for teachers.
Proposal gives teachers the choice to include 2015-16 TNReady results if scores benefit them

TN READY ASSESSMENTS WILL BE ADMINISTERED VIA PAPER AND PENCIL FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE 2015-16 SCHOOL YEAR. This letter was sent to parents. Dear Families,
As you may be aware, this week marked the beginning of the TNReady testing program. TNReady is the new state assessment designed to measure true student understanding and problem-solving abilities under Tennessee’s rigorous academic standards. These tests were expected to be administered entirely online.
On Monday, many schools across the state experienced significant technical challenges with the MIST platform, the online tool used by the Tennessee Department of Education (TNDOE) to administer the TNReady tests. As a result, some schools had to discontinue testing.
In the best interests of students and to protect instructional time, the TNDOE has determined that they cannot continue with the TNReady online testing platform in its current state. Therefore, for the remainder of the 2015-16 school year, TNReady assessments will be administered via paper and pencil.
As a result of this statewide shift to paper and pencil assessments, the TNDOE will delay and extend the Part I testing window. Paper tests will be printed and shipped shortly, and a revised testing window will be communicated by the end of the week. We will be sharing this information with you as it becomes available.
The state of Tennessee, as well as our school district, had been diligently preparing for this new online assessment over the past few years, so it is understandably frustrating to encounter these challenges. I would ask for your patience, as the TNDOE works to adjust the testing timeline and ship paper tests to our school.
More information will be forthcoming in the next few days. In the meantime, our teachers will continue to focus on high quality instruction, and we will all continue to make decisions that are in the best interests of our students.

Central HS to launch Blended Online Academy!

Here are some ways our community can participate in Thank a Teacher Week!

http://www.greatschoolspartnership.com/thank-a-teacher-week/

Thank A Teacher Week Thank A Teacher Week Thank A Teacher Week is September 28 – October 2, 2015 Sign Up to Help with Thank A Teacher Week! Thank you for your interest in THANK A TEACHER WEEK. This week is an opportunity for our community to celebrate the work of our Knox County educators. There are many ways you can ta…

Find your child's bus stop. Visit our website at www.knoxschools.org – the “For Families” tab includes a link entitled “Bus Stop Locator”. This site
will provide you with your available bus stops.

Knox County Schools / Homepage

Parents, Students, School Staff and Community Members:

The Knox County Schools Board of Education recently adopted a new five year strategic plan entitled, Excellence for All Children. As we engaged our community in a visioning process for the development of this plan, many community members expressed interest in a balanced calendar, and we committed to having a broader dialogue on this topic. We are now engaged in this promised community dialogue about the potential for implementing a balanced calendar in our schools.

A balanced calendar reorganizes the school year to provide more continuous learning for students. While the total number of instructional days would not change, a balanced calendar has a summer break that is somewhat shorter than our current summer break, but also includes breaks between grading periods. If recommended by the Superintendent and approved by the Board of Education, the soonest a balanced calendar could be implemented would be in the 2016-2017 school year.

Your insight on this important initiative is important to us. Please take a moment to complete the survey at the link below and share your thoughts with us.

DIRECT LINK TO SURVEY:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Balanced_Calendar_Web

KCS Balanced Calendar Survey Dear KCS Students, Parents/Guardians, Employees and Community Employers, Due to the community interest expressed last year during the strategic planning process, the Knox County Schools (KCS) is investigating the possibility of implementing a balanced calendar. A balanced calendar has a summer break…

Remaining Balanced Calendar Community Meetings for Families in District 2:
3/23: Fountain City ES @6 at Fountain City ES
3/24: Whittle Springs MS, Belle Morris ES, and Christenberry ES at Whittle Springs
3/26: Inskip ES, Central HS, Gresham MS, Fountain City ES, Sterchi ES, and Shannondale ES at Central HS
3/31: Ritta ES @5:30 at Ritta
For more information about the Balanced Calendar, please go to:
www.knoxschools.org/balancedcalendar

Balanced Calendar / Balanced Calendar

If there is any confusion for parents/teachers regarding the TCAP Writing Assessment, this is quoted from the TN Dept. of Ed:
"The 2015 TCAP Writing Assessment will continue to have no effect upon district or school level accountability including AMOs. The scores will not be factored into students’ grades, teacher value- added scores and should not be used for teacher evaluation purposes."