Update: According to the Wyoming Department of Education, there was a misunderstanding as far as when the assessments would be made public. This article was updated to include information provided by Linda Finnerty, chief communications officer for the WDE and update the article as a result of that new information.
ROCK SPRINGS – Sweetwater County School District No. 1 is vowing to improve following the release of the WY-TOPP assessment data by the Wyoming Department of Education Wednesday, saying more support is already being given to schools.
Sweetwater County School District No. 1 Superintendent Joseph Libby issued a statement Friday saying the district is already addressing the situation. Libby said the timing of the WDE’s initial press release came before the district could verify its own data. Libby initially believed the release date was Oct. 17. However, the WDE says their plan was always to release the assessment results in early October and said a misunderstanding occurred in the district as far as when the WY-TOPP assessment results would be released, and when the planned release of the department’s School Performance Report would take place.
In an email to SweetwaterNOW, Linda Finnerty, the chief communications officer for the WDE, said all district employees were notified through WDE Updates July 29 that the public release of assessment results would be done Oct. 1. She said that plan changed and a WDE Update issued Sept. 23 alerted district employees that the assessment results release would be moved to the following week, to Oct. 9. Finnerty said a media release was issued Oct. 4 that was also sent to all district employees announcing a media event that would take place virtually Oct. 9. She said a final media release was issued Oct. 9 at noon that shared the information with the public. She said the WDE’s School Performance Report results are scheduled to be released publicly Oct. 17, which has been the plan since July.
“I am afraid that there is confusion between the School Performance Reports (which is 10/17) with the assessment results, but not through any communications from us,” Finnerty said.
SCSC No.1 Vice Chairwoman Stephanie Thompson said the district typically receives WY-TOPP data a week prior to the WDE publicly releasing it, which would give the district time to investigate the data and raise concerns with the WDE should any come up. Thompson said the release by the WDE and SweetwaterNOW’s reporting of SCSD No. 1’s results blindsided the district as officials believed they would see the data before it was publicly available.
Regardless of when the information is released, Libby said it doesn’t change the outcome for the district.
“Our scores didn’t diminish overnight and we won’t return to our level of expectation overnight,” he said. “There is a significant amount of work that needs to be done, and we are doing it.”
Libby said work has already taken place to align instruction with grade level expectations and academic rigor has increased to match those expectations. He also said support for building principals and staff Professional Learning Communities has increased, while “district level visibility” and support for instructional practices has also been made a priority. Libby’s statement doesn’t provide specifics as to what is being done to increase the support he mentions. Libby said the district owns its results and that it’s his responsibility to lead the district in a positive and supportive manner. Both Thompson and Libby say improvement in SCSD No.1is possible through the combined efforts from students, staff, parents, and the community.
“This work is difficult and it will take the patience and perseverance of us all to make this happen,” Libby concluded. “We will be successful because I am confident that our entire community will support what needs to be done.”
Thompson said while the results are publicly available at this point, a public briefing before the board of trustees likely won’t happen during the Oct. 14th board meeting. Thompson said district administrators typically made the WY-TOPP presentation during the November meeting, having about three weeks to review data and build presentations for each school. She said presentations for the school improvement plans utilizing WY-TOPP data don’t typically occur until December.
For Thompson, while she readily admits the proficiency scores need to improve, her main concern with the data is if it shows growth is occurring in the district. She said WY-TOPP provides data, but that data doesn’t reflect the entirety of a student’s knowledge or situation. She said a student’s emotional state while taking the test can influence WY-TOPP scores and some students simply do not test well. The result of both situations being that their scores would be lower than they should reflect.
“If the kid is having a bad day, they’re having a bad day … their test scores will show that,” Thompson said.
Thompson also said the test also reflects current state standards and meeting those standards are always a moving target for school districts as state standards are adjusted. She said the district has changed the material taught to students as it wasn’t meeting current state standards. She said that previous material wasn’t useless information, but that it simply didn’t match what Wyoming’s standards dictate.
Carol Jelaco, chair of the Sweetwater County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees, declined to comment about the WY-TOPP scores, saying she had not been briefed on the results.
What follows are individual school WY-TOPP test results for SCSD No. 1, taken from the WDE’s website:
