Parkside Elementary School Principal Jason Hillman said that the school’s two part mission is to be the kindest and highest performing school in the state and to be valued by its stakeholders.

Now, the school is one of 12 in the state and the only school in Powell that has received an exceeding expectations ranking on its annual school performance report for the last three years on record. School performance was not calculated in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, the WDE said in a release.

“Our staff has worked tremendously hard on fulfilling [our] mission. We have great staff and Parkside teachers are so caring and kind,” he said. “And our families do a great job with their kids too, I mean, staff, families and kids — they've been really focused.”

Parkside Elementary works to get students to buy into their mission through interactive activities and celebrations. For example, a paper bus travels throughout Parkside when it’s given fuel in the form of stickers. Students earn a sticker to fuel the bus when they do a kind act. 

The WDE said in a release that Wyoming schools have seen a steady increase in school performance ratings following COVID-19 but “work remains to exceed pre-pandemic numbers.” In this evaluation period 26% of schools improved their performance rating, 53% of schools maintained their performance rating and the performance rating of 21% of schools declined.

“School performance ratings are based primarily on academic achievement. However, they provide a more comprehensive analysis of school performance by also including aspects of student academic growth (year to year increases in achievement levels) and a measure of how prepared the students are for success after graduation,” said Megan Degenfelder, the state superintendent of public instruction.

Meeting expectations is not enough for Powell

Powell’s other traditional schools in the state have met expectations, but Superintendent Jay Curtis said to have only one school exceeding expectations is “just not normal for us.”

“Every one of our schools is digging into the areas that they need to [get] from meeting expectations to exceeding,” Curtis said.

The performance report at the high school level consists of eight categories set by the Wyoming Accountability in Education Act and Every Student Succeeds Act. Powell High School exceeded expectations in extended graduation and was above average in the ESSA norms for achievement, four year on time graduation, and post-secondary readiness, but was below target on growth. However, Curtis said PCSD1 had some growth issues in schools but the student achievement was exceeding expectations or above average. Because of this it is not unusual to have growth listed as below the target because high achieving students will have less room to grow.

In the WAEA and ESSA performance report summary, elementary schools are evaluated on 12 categories. Parkside Elementary exceeded WAEA School performance rating expectations, the WAEA growth target, the WAEA equity level target and the WAEA achievement target. In ESSA categories Parkside Elementary was above average in growth norm, equity norm and achievement norm. Southside Elementary School exceeded the WAEA target for equity. In ESSA categories Southside Elementary was above average in growth norm, equity norm and achievement norm. Westside Elementary exceeded the WAEA target in achievement and was above average in the ESSA norm for achievement. Powell Middle School was above average in the ESSA achievement norm category.

Shoshone Learning Center, Powell’s alternative high school, will require an improvement plan because the number of students tested for the performance report was too low. 

“We're kind of senior heavy in the SLC, they primarily serve juniors and seniors  [and] juniors are the only ones used in achievement,” Curtis said. 

The WDE will not provide the SLC with a performance rating until a school performance plan is created.

Moving forward Curtis said that districtwide schools will have to address their English language learner student population. This has been the district’s achilles’ heel, Curtis said. Southside Elementary and Powell High’s English language proficiency is below WAEA target and ESSA norm category. A task force will look at how to improve English language learner programs throughout this year with the goal of implementing changes next year.

The district will also “dig into what individual students need, and try and help each individual kid grow at their very highest level.”

For a more in depth look at school performance reports visit edu.wyoming.gov/data/accountability-reports.