Rise and shine: Changes await Knox County students
- Posted August 12, 2013 at 5 a.m.
PHOTO BY JAMIE SATTERFIELD
Scene from the Knox County school security meeting on Friday, March 1, 2013. (Jamie Satterfield/News Sentinel)
Today is the day as Knox County students head back to the classroom and begin the 2013-14 school year.
For parents and students, here are a few things to know about this school year:
There is a big focus on student safety
Knox County Schools has added 47 school security officers, doubling its force.
The new officers will be stationed at each of the middle and high schools and several of the elementary schools. Officers from the Knoxville Police Department and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office will also be in the schools.
Their addition is part of the school system’s plans to expand its security this year.
Other security strategy enhancements include moving toward current generation video systems in all the district’s schools as well as looking at school access control.
Students at 11 schools will be equipped with personalized learning technology as the school system implements its pilot technology challenge
The challenge was an internal competition that selected schools to begin their own 1-to-1 technology effort — or one technology device for each student and teacher.
Interested schools went through an application process, and the winning schools were chosen from 28 applicants.
The schools that won are South-Doyle and Bearden high schools; Holston, West Valley and Vine middle schools; and Corryton, Halls, Mooreland Heights, Norwood, Sterchi and Bonny Kate elementary schools.
Teachers received their laptops this summer, and students will get theirs in October when the second grading period begins.
School officials said students at the middle and high schools will get MacBook Pros. While students in kindergarten through second grade will receive iPads, third- through fifth-graders will also receive MacBook Pros but will not be allowed to take them home.
The district also will go to full implementation of Common Core standards in kindergarten through 12th grade this year
The standards are a more rigorous and detailed way of teaching to help students be better prepared for college and the workforce.
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted the new standards.
Last year, Knox County implemented math and English standards for kindergarten through second grade, and rolled out a partial implementation of the math standards for grades three through eight.
This year is full implementation for both subjects in all grades.
Follow tweets on education news in East Tennessee atwww.twitter.com/mykidmyschool.
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