KCS Guiding Tenets


Mission (What we are hoping to accomplish): The mission of Kingsport City Schools is to provide all students with a world-class and student-focused education that ensures college and career readiness.

Vision (Our desired future): Student Focused…World Class

Core Values (What we believe):
• Exemplary student learning
• Guaranteed and viable curriculum
• Collaborative professional learning communities
• Engaged families and the community
• Data-driven decisions for continuous improvement
• Culture of shared leadership

Goals (What we strive to achieve):
• Goal One: Deliver world-class curriculum and instruction.
• Goal Two: Provide committed and innovative educators.
• Goal Three: Furnish safe, appropriate, and well-maintained facilities that support teaching and learning.
• Goal Four: Ensure business operations effectively support teaching and learning.
• Goal Five: Engage families and the community.

Core Competencies (Who we are):
• Promote and support exemplary leadership through programming and succession planning.
• Offer a rigorous, comprehensive, and engaging curriculum.
• Engage students in learning through the use of transformative tools and innovative instructional practices.
• Provide personalized professional learning opportunities for all employees.
• Actively engage and serve our families and community.
• Support and sustain the organization with a performance improvement system.

Key Practices (What we do):
• Plan, teach, assess, and evaluate to inform instructional practices through the use of the 4 critical questions.
• Incorporate problem-solving and innovation in teaching and learning.
• Guide teaching and learning using internationally benchmarked standards.
• Seek to understand and engage our families and community.
• Recruit, retain, and develop highly competent educators.
• Build leadership capacity within our educational community.

4 Critical Questions (How we plan for learning):
• What is it we expect our students to learn?
• How will we know when the students have learned it?
• How will we respond when students do not learn?
• How do we respond to students that have mastered the content?