Wyoming Education Association

Fall 2016

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BACK TO SCHOOL 2016 | wyoea.org 17 Update Upcoming Meetings Advisory Committee Oct 12 Casper Joint Appropriations Oct 24 Casper School Facilities Oct 25 Cheyenne Joint Education Nov 14 Casper Joint Education/ Nov 15 Casper School Accountability Wyoming Retirement System Nov 16-17 Cheyenne Legislature Convenes Jan 10 Cheyenne Accountability Results Show Some Improvements For the first time since the Wyoming Accountability in Education Act (WAEA) school accountability system was implemented, assessments and cut-points remained constant for more than one year. This allowed for comparisons between results from the past two years, and the news was: mostly positive! Though not dramatic, the improvement was indeed statistically significant. Great news for Wyoming schools, staff, and students! To definitively demonstrate improvement trends, we would need to look at results over a number of years, but our state assessments will change again in 2018, delaying that possibility. Schools showing performance levels in the Meeting and Exceeding Expectations categories for grades 3-8 increased from 131 schools in 2015 to 147 in 2016, which equate to an increase from 51% to 57% of all Wyoming schools. Overall results for high schools (excluding alternative schools) increased to 69% (from 60%) of schools Meeting or Exceeding Expectations. However, participation rate continues to be a challenge at some schools, and the Equity component scores actually went down. Complicating the high school situation was that the Explore and Plan tests were replaced with Aspire, which affected certain components of the model. The Select Committee on Accountability met on September 21 st to consider possible changes to the Wyoming accountability system. Of course, the final decisions will have to be made by the full legislature in 2017, but the Committee so far recommends that: teacher accountability tied to student achievement on state assessments be removed from Phase II of WAEA, and that it be left to districts to evaluate teacher performance in accordance with statute and Chapter 29 Rules and Regulations; the alternative school pilot be carried out in 2016- 17 and 2017-18, and any necessary adjustments be made based on those results; would change the requirement for annual evaluation of continuing contract teachers to every three years, if the teacher's evaluations are satisfactory for a period of time. Additional changes are possible, depending on the November recommendations of the Advisory Committee to the Select Committee. Those might involve such topics as whether to add military readiness as an additional component, as well as whether to remove the current requirements for schools that are meeting or exceeding expectations to submit communications or improvement plans to WDE. We can also expect to see additional changes to the accountability system as a result of requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Your Association will continue to represent your interests at accountability, legislative, and state board of education meetings and will update you on developments as they occur. Questions can be directed to Kathy Scheurman, WEA Professional Issues Director, at kscheurman@ wyoea.org. • • •

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