Knox County School Board Member expresses concern over outcome of TCAP results

WUOT | By Jacqui Sieber

Published May 23, 2023 at 12:23 PM EDT

Despite Tennessee reporting the largest percentage of third graders scoring in the top performance category in over a decade, most are facing retention under the new law.

WUOT's Jacqui Sieber talked with Knox County Board of Education member Katherine Bike about the effects of the third-grade retention law after preliminary results from the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, also known as TCAP, show 35% of Knox County third graders did not meet expectations on the English Language Arts portion of the exam.

Statewide, about 60% of third graders could be at risk of being held back under the new law. Tennessee has about 75,000 third graders.

The state will release final test scores this summer.

Jacqui Sieber

Jacqui was born and raised in Pittsburgh. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2021 with a bachelor’s in communications. Outside of work, she likes to go to baseball games, walk dogs at her local animal shelter, and hike.

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