Powell schools earned a shoutout from the Wyoming Department of Education thanks to some strong WYTOPP scores for 2023-2024 at the district level as well as Powell Middle School and Westside Elementary School specifically. 

The district as a whole held the top proficiency rate in math and science; with 70.1% and 60.6%, respectively, deemed proficient or better in the two categories. At the school level Westside Elementary earned the spotlight for 74% proficiency in English Language Arts and 76.1% proficiency in math. Powell Middle School students achieved an English Language Arts proficiency of 74.6% and math proficiency of 69% and last year’s sixth grad class had a score 87% proficient or advanced, Powell Middle School Principal Kyle Rohrer said. The states scores, averaged across grade levels, are 53.4% in language arts, 49.5% in math and 48% in science.

“We are extremely proud of our school district, our students, our staff, honestly this is a reflection of all of their hard work, but it’s also a reflection of our community,” Superintendent Jay Curtis said. “Because school districts that do really well, [it’s] typically not by accident, and it’s not without tremendous amounts of parent support for their students and for our school district.”

WYTOPP scores are only one measure of student success but an important measure, Curtis said.

Math proficiency has been “a difficult subject for a very long time across the country,” he said. In Powell, high quality teachers and students who show an interest in learning make a difference. Curtis also mentioned professional learning community practices which encourage collaboration amongst staff. This collaboration and a belief in their work is called teacher collective efficacy, Curtis said.

“Frankly, in Powell, we have the best group of teachers and administrators, I think in the state of Wyoming, possibly in the country, and they all believe very deeply that when they come to work every day, that it matters,  that what they do every day matters in getting our students to learn what we say is important for them to learn,” Curtis said. 

At Westside Elementary, students “approached that final summative assessment with excitement and with confidence, knowing that they were well prepared to do their very best,” Principal Angela Woyak said. 

At the school, staff focus on student growth and when looking at the results for the past three years, growth is evident in every student group for that period. Particularly noteworthy is last year’s fifth grade students who went from 48% proficient or advanced in math as third graders to 83% last year. 

“Those are significant increases in proficiency rates that are rarely seen,” Woyak said. 

Everyday the school’s focus is on the kids and how to be a lifelong learner — this culture plays into the students mindset during the assessment, Instructional Facilitator Kassi Ashby said.

At Powell Middle School students were in the top 10 for six out of seven scores, Rohrer said, using calculations that excluded smaller 1A districts. With the exception of one ELA score they were double digits above the state average. 

“The goal is, be above the state,” Rohrer said. “Your lofty goal is, if you can be double digits [above the state], then we’re doing good things,” Rohrer said.

Last year’s eighth grade English Language Arts scores were not in the top 10 but a large improvement was made — they jumped from 25th in the state in 2023 to 11th, Rohrer said. 

“We’re fortunate to have these kids that come here focused, ready to learn and they’re dialed in, and parents are supportive, and our staff’s got the relationships and they’re dialed in,” Rohrer said. “You just keep kind of fine tuning.”

Powell Middle has put a focus on this continuous improvement. One example is the creation of a Big Horn Basin English Language Arts Professional Learning Community last year to help improve ELA scores. The middle school also has a schedule that complements student learning. 

Powell Middle School can confidently say its WYTOPP scores are an accurate representation of what its students know, said Chanler Buck, assistant principal. 

“We set goals throughout the year … they know where they’re at when they go into this thing, they know what it takes to provide a true reflection of their growth throughout the school year,” Buck said. “We do some fun things with them, but when the results come out, we can confidently say that’s a true representation of what our kids have done this year.”