Meeting set for student assessments

The Knox County Schools’ Student Assessment Inventory Committee will host a community meeting on Tuesday, June 2, at 6 p.m. at West High School (3300 Sutherland Avenue) to begin to gather input from the community regarding student assessments. The meeting is open to educators, students, parents and members of the community. The community meeting is part of a broader comprehensive student assessment analysis the school system is conducting, funded by a grant provided by Achieve, Inc. The Student Assessment Inventory Committee is comprised of teachers, school counselors and district administrators.

The purpose of the comprehensive student assessment analysis is to help address questions and concerns about assessment that have been raised by the Knox County community. It was one of the seven community conversations included in Superintendent Jim McIntyre’s 2015 State of the Schools Address. Ultimately, the goal of the analysis is to help ensure that all assessments given to students in the Knox County Schools are either required or useful in informing instructional decisions.

During this phase of the project, a comprehensive inventory of the assessments administered across the district will be created. In addition to the community forum, the school district will also collect input from school leaders, teachers and students through a combination of school meetings, focus groups, individual interviews and surveys.

The June 2nd community meeting will begin with a brief overview, followed by “break-out” sessions where participants can discuss their questions and concerns related to student assessment. Break-out sessions will be divided into specialty populations, such as an English Language Learners small group, special education small group and grade level-specific small groups. After the break-out sessions, the small groups will summarize their discussions for the broader group. The large group sessions will stream live on knoxschools.org/kcstv and can be viewed live on Comcast cable channel 10 or AT&T U-verse channel 99.