School of Education

Education

• Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University
• M.T. in Elementary Education, University of Virginia
• B.A. in Sociology, University of Virginia

Research interests

Teacher residency programs; recruiting, preparing, supporting and retaining extraordinary teachers for high needs schools; coaching and mentoring teachers; building relationships with students identified with emotional or behavioral disorders; home-school partnerships between teachers and families

Career highlights

• Virginia Lottery Super Teacher Award in first year of teaching
• National Board Certified Teacher
• Leadership Metro Richmond GQ19 Member
• Teachers of Promise Mentor

Recent publications/projects

• Conroy, M. A., McKnight, K., & Sutherland, K. S. (2019). Partnering with families of students at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. In L. Lo & Y. Xu (Eds.), Family, School and Community Partnerships for Individuals with Disabilities. (pp. 57-69) New York: Springer.
• Sutherland, K.S., Conroy, M.A., McLeod, B.D., Kunemund, R., & McKnight, K. (2019). Common practice elements for improving social, emotional and behavioral outcomes of young elementary school students. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 27, 76-85. DOI 10.1177/1063426618784009.
• Zumbrunn, S., Ekholm, E., Stringer, J., McKnight, K., & DeBusk-Lane, M. (2017). Student experiences with writing: Taking the temperature of the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 70(6), 667-677.
• Miller, C., Wu, E., Sutherland, K., McLeod, B.D, McKnight, K., Werch, B., Conroy, M. (2017). Home-school partnerships between teachers and families of students participating in a classroom based tier 2 program. Poster presented at the Annual Conference on Advancing School Mental Health, Washington D.C.

Bio

Dr. Kim McKnight has directed the expansion of VCU’s RTR teacher residency program in Chesterfield County Public Schools, Petersburg City Public Schools, and helped create graduate certificate pathways that increase the number of teachers in hard to staff schools. Previously, she served as an education consultant for The Cameron Foundation and project coordinator for the first year-round school in Chesterfield County Public Schools, Bellwood Elementary. From 2014 to 2017, she was a BEST in CLASS coach for teachers in City of Richmond schools. Current research topics include building trust between teachers and their students’ families, facilitating strong partnerships between residents and coaches during their residency year, and supporting area school divisions who are partners of RTR. McKnight was born in Richmond and is a former National Board certified elementary school teacher in the Greater Richmond area. Please visit teachrtr.org to learn more about VCU’s teacher residency program.

Curriculum Vitae