ROCK SPRINGS – The new leadership team at Sweetwater County School District No. 1 is looking at different ideas after receiving the news that the district did not make Adequate Yearly Progress again.
Only one school in the district, Farson-Eden continued to be a bright spot while others look for avenues to success.
AYP is an accountability measure which was set up by the Federal Government using PAWS and ACT tests to see where students are academically. In 2011-2012, Wyoming asked for a waiver from the government in which the scores from 2010-2011 were duplicated for the next school year.
New district Curriculum Director Wanda Maloney broke down the problems, what they mean and the solutions to get the district back on track. She started with the positive as she reported the district is at 95 percent participation, which the government has been pushing for. From there, the discussion turned more serious.
Several times during the presentation, Maloney said a lot of work and focus needs to be placed on Language Arts. Maloney also said the district really needs to watch their math scores. She said that there was weakness across the board in all sub groups.
With the results, schools have to come up with plans to show improvement. Maloney explained school improvement plans are due by Nov. 1. She also said that they are providing professional development to staff in the English Language Arts and support in Math.
She pointed to several pilot programs at different schools with curriculum designed to help find and bridge gaps other plans might not identify. She said they are also providing support to special education and English Language Learner students to give subgroups additional support.
Some schools are now into their fourth year of improvement. With schools continually missing benchmarks, parents have different rights depending on what year of improvement the school is in. For example, parents can have students pulled from a school that continues to miss the benchmarks and have them moved into another school.
Maloney said that the District’s administrators are looking at things they can do to help schools succeed. Maloney said there will be school visits from her and the superintendent to watch what is working and what isn’t. She also explained they will monitor progress with PAWS and MAP data. Maloney explained they are working on a program that would provide building administrators with real time data to base their decisions on.
Finally, Maloney spoke of continually watching the changing legislative scene in education. She said there are already changes the Wyoming Legislature has made which will start going into effect. She said they are also watching the continuing saga with No Child Left Behind.
“It was suppose to be renewed in 2007 but hasn’t yet,” Moloney said. “I guess we will just wait and see.”
No School Board Members spoke or asked questions about the AYP issue after Maloney’s presentation.
