Students exceed expectation, again.

Every year much preparation and effort goes into preparing students across the state of Wyoming to take the PAWS standardized tests. PAWS stands for Proficiency Assessments for Wyoming Students and the tests are given to students in third, fourth, fifth sixth, seventh, eighth and eleventh grades, as is required by the Wyoming Legislature and the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
The PAWS tests measure students achievement and academic knowledge in the areas of reading, writing and mathematics and checks those results against statewide standards in those areas.
The PAWS test questions are multiple choice, constructed-response and extended response questions. Results are given by performance level. A student tests either Below Basic, Basic, Proficient or Advanced in the areas of reading, writing and mathematics. The goal for all Wyoming students, as determined by the Wyoming Department of Education, is to be at the Proficient level of above in all areas.
As a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools must ensure that all of their students are proficient or above in reading and mathematics by 2014, and PAWS test results are used to determine if students are proficient or not.
PAWS scores are also used to measure a school’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), in achieving the goal of having all students reach the proficient level.
Schools in Wyoming are required to meet three federally set criteria in relation to AYP. All schools must have a participation rate of 95 percent or higher for PAWS testing. All schools  must show a  reduction in the percent of students scoring at the Basic level on the PAWS tests at the elementary through junior high grades and must show an increase in the graduation rate for high schools, and  all schools must meet federally set goals of proficiency on the PAWS tests.
Schools with students in elementary through junior high grades are required to reduce the percentage of students who score at the novice level, or they must have below 15 percent of their students in the Basic category.  High schools are required to either increase their graduation rate or maintain a rate that is 80 percent or above.
In Wyoming, to be compliant with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools must meet specific targets of students proficient and above. For the 2006-2007 school year, elementary school schools were required to have 36.5 percent of students proficient or above in math and 42 percent in language arts, middle and junior high schools were required to have 37.75 percent of students proficient or above in math and 45.42 percent in math, and high schools were required to have 46.5 percent of eleventh graders proficient or above in math and 57 percent in language arts.
The results for Lincoln County School District No. 2 on the 2006-2007 PAWS test results show that Adequate Yearly Progress was achieved district-wide, and that progress is being made in several areas.
According to LCSD No. 2 Director of Instruction, Mark Taylor, the standout scores in these results are the schools and grades that had 100 percent of students Proficient of Advanced.
“I did not even know that it was possible to have 100 percent of students be Proficient or Advanced,” Taylor said.
In the third grade test results, 100 percent of Afton students and 100 percent of Holdaway students were Proficient or Advanced in math, and Cokeville had an impressive 94 percent.
In the third grade, all students were above the state average in all areas, with writing being the lowest score at 65.9, 58.8 and 74.7 at Afton, Cokeville and Holdaway respectively.
Cokeville had 100 percent of fourth grade students test Proficient of Advanced in math and in reading, and Metcalf and Osmond also did very well  with scores of 92 percent and 94.9 percent in math and scores of 78.2 percent and 89.8 percent in reading. The district average for students Proficient or Advanced in writing in the fourth grade was 83 percent.
Fifth grade scores showed significant increases in writing scores at Metcalf and Osmond with 79 percent and 81.3 percent of students Proficient or Advanced. Metcalf had an exceptional math score of 90.1 percent.
Sixth grade students had well above average results in reading at all three schools, with scores of over 90, 85.5 and 93.5 percent at Cokeville, Metcalf and Osmond. All three of Osmond’s scores were above 92 percent, and the district average in writing was 21 percentage points above the state average, at 86.8.
The seventh grade results showed significant increases in writing scores at both schools, and a district average of almost 80 percent in all three areas.
Eighth grade students had noteworthy writing scores, with 89.5 percent of Cokeville students and 88.5% percent of SVMS students testing at Proficient or Above.
In the eleventh grade, 100 percent of students at Cokeville High School were Proficient or Advanced in reading and in writing, and 90 percent were Proficient or Advanced in math. SVHS had results of 85.3, 90.7 and 70.7 in reading, writing and math respectively.
When comparing the PAWS results of students in LCSD No. 2 with students across the state of Wyoming, CHS outscored all schools of a similar size in all three subject areas, and SVHS outscored all schools of a similar size in writing, and was third and fourth in reading and math.
Looking at the progress from 2005 to 2006, writing scores have improved across the board, with the exception of Cokeville fifth graders, and many of the writing scores increased dramatically.
Director of Instruction for LCSD No. 2, Mark Taylor, attributes the increases in writing scores largely to the work of Keather Pierantoni, who was hired by the district as an instructional facilitator and worked on reading and writing in the district schools. Pierantoni trained teachers, held workshops and provided other instruction to work on academic achievement in the areas of reading and writing in the district.
Julie Erickson was hired to be an instructional facilitator for mathematics in Kindergarten through sixth grades and was valuable in boosting math scores in the district.
Both Erickson and Pierantoni will continue to work in the schools this year as instructional facilitators.
The PAWS test results from the 2006-2007 school year show that all grades have met the Adequate Yearly Progress federally required, and that overall district students are meeting and exceeding goals.
Full scores and more details, about PAWS are available online at the Wyoming Department of Education webpage, www.k12.wy.us.