Education Dept. releases School Performance Ratings

The Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) has released results for the 2023-24 School Performance Ratings. 

School performance levels are derived from a variety of indicators and are calculated to help determine which schools are doing well and which schools need support. The Wyoming Accountability in Education Act (WAEA) looks at student growth, readiness, achievement, equity, and English language proficiency. Based on these indicators, schools receive one of four overall performance ratings: Exceeding Expectations, Meeting Expectations, Partially Meeting Expectations, or Not Meeting Expectations. 

The 2023-24 performance level accountability results show 53% of traditional schools were Meeting or Exceeding Expectations. Greybull Elementary School and Greybull High School each were found to be Meeting Expectations, just as they were in 2022-23 and 2021-22.

Greybull Middle School was found to be Partially Meeting Expectations in 2023-24. A closer look showed it falling below the growth and English learner targets while meeting the achievement and equity targets.

Supt. Mark Fritz told the board at its October meeting that GMS has a tougher time meeting expectations because its rating is based on four indicators.  Greybull High School also missed two targets — English learner and postsecondary readiness — but met expectations because its rating was based on seven indicators.  GES missed the target on only one of the three indicators used to determine its rating.

Fritz said the data shows that “students who come to us speaking a different language have a harder time and that’s to be expected,” and that in conversations with staff, the focus is on how best to help that population of students perform a little better.

According to the statewide release, overall performance on most indicators was flat or a few percentage points below last year. However, several significant increases in the postsecondary readiness indicator occurred. 

Total high school graduates College, Career, or Military Ready increased to 61%, an increase of 5% from the previous year. 

Career Ready graduates increased from 20.3% to 25.5%.

The Hathaway Success Curriculum (Opportunity or higher) was met by 52% of the College Ready students.

College Ready students that received a score of 19 or higher on the ACT test is 49.6%.

“Although there is work to be done in some areas, there are bright spots as well. Ensuring that all Wyoming graduates are college, career, or military ready has been a core focus for me from day one,” said State Superintendent Megan Degenfelder.