Powell students excel on state assessment

Local schools in top five in every subject

Posted 9/3/19

In the second year of a new statewide assessment, local students rose to the top.

Park County School District No. 1 Superintendent Jay Curtis received a call from the Wyoming Department of …

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Powell students excel on state assessment

Local schools in top five in every subject

Posted

In the second year of a new statewide assessment, local students rose to the top.

Park County School District No. 1 Superintendent Jay Curtis received a call from the Wyoming Department of Education last week, telling him that Powell was in the top five in every subject tested in WY-TOPP.

“I thought that was really special,” Curtis told the school board last week, adding it “speaks so very highly of our system.”

The state rolled out the WY-TOPP — Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress — last year, testing students in third through 10th grades in math and English. Students in fourth, eighth and 10th grades also took science exams.

As a high-performing district, Park County School District No. 1 — which includes all of Powell’s schools and Clark Elementary School — was one of only two districts highlighted by the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) during a press conference Wednesday; Big Horn County School District. No 3 in Greybull also was recognized for the growth its students have shown.

“Park 1 is consistently in the top of all districts with the increase of proficient and advanced students in all three subjects over the previous year,” said Michelle Panos, WDE communications director.

On the 2019 exams, Powell students scored above the state average in almost every grade level and every subject area, with just two exceptions. For some subjects, students skyrocketed above the state average by more than 20 percentage points.

That includes fifth-grade math, where 80.5 percent of Powell students were proficient and advanced — 25.1 percentage points above the state average.

Powell’s young mathematicians excelled at multiple grade levels, posting the following scores:

• Fourth-graders tested at 77.1 percent proficient and advanced in math, 24.2 percentage points above the state average.

• Sixth-grade math students tested at 77.9 percent proficient and advanced, 22.9 percentage points above the state average.

• In eighth-grade math, 79.72 percent of students were proficient and advanced, 25.2 percentage points above the state average.

Superintendent Curtis said it’s an honor for Powell to be recognized by the state.

“Our success in those areas is certainly something that is not an accident,” he said during Wednesday’s conference call.

He said Park 1 believes the culture of the district starts at the top with the board and trickles down to all employees — teachers, paraeducators, custodians, cooks, administrators, bus drivers and office staff.

“We’re really focused on a shared vision of success for every student, and that comes from a culture of professional learning communities,” he said.

He called WY-TOPP “a great tool,” but said it’s not the district’s focus.

The assessments are “just what kids choose to show us on one day of the year, and we’re worried about what they do 365 days of the year,” Curtis said.

Educators use data from the exams to help students on an individual level, whether it’s through enrichment or intervention.

Unlike past state assessments, WY-TOPP results are available to educators almost immediately after students take the exams, which Curtis called “phenomenal.”

“We were able to put that [data] to great use the day after we got results,” Curtis said.

Educators used that data to make plans for how they were going to approach this school year.

With PAWS, the previous state assessment, results sometimes weren’t available until late August or even into October one year, Curtis recalled.

“At that point, that information is relatively useless to us as a school district,” he said. “If we have good data immediately — and particularly on individual student performance — than we can use that data immediately.”

While WY-TOPP may still need some tweaking, Curtis said that overall, the Powell district appreciates the tools WY-TOPP provides and they’re happy to continue using it as the state assessment.

“We in Powell do feel that the WY-TOPP is probably the best assessment we’ve had in the last several decades,” he said.

The superintendent said he’s also glad to be going into the third year with the exam with no talk about changing the assessment anytime soon. PAWS underwent numerous changes, making it difficult to accurately compare scores from year to year.

“We’ve preached for years and years that if you give us a target, and that target remains WY-TOPP [and you] then give us time and the opportunity to knock it out of the park, that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Curtis said.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow said the second year of WY-TOPP went “very well.”

“Besides providing a much better measure of student performance, WY-TOPP has allowed us to spend less money on statewide assessments — and take up less classroom time for testing,” Balow said in a press release.

For many subjects and grade levels tested, Powell students scored higher than the previous year.

In 17 out of 19 areas tested, Powell kids exceeded the statewide average, often by double-digits. Third-grade language arts scores were 3.5 percentage points below the state average, while 10th grade math scores were about 3 percentage points under the state average.

The data from the WY-TOPP exams helps teachers identify students who are struggling. Combined with data from other sources, that helps provide a clearer picture of what a student needs moving forward, Curtis said.

He commended Powell school employees’ hard work to ensure that students get what they need.

“The dedication of the people in this district never ceases to amaze me,” Curtis told the school board last week.

The superintendent said he’s really proud of Powell and Wyoming.

“Though we are successful, I would say that our teachers and administration are eager to push to new heights,” Curtis said. “Frankly, we weren’t 100 percent satisfied with the way we did on WY-TOPP, and we’re going to continue to try to improve.”

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