By Tracie Mitchell
Staff Writer 

Ten Sleep PAWS testing shows areas of work needed

 

August 17, 2017



TEN SLEEP – During the Ten Sleep School Board meeting Monday evening the board heard the results of the 2016-2017 PAWS (Proficiency Assessments for Wyoming Students) from Ten Sleep School Principal Russell Budmayr. Budmayr reported that most of the results were positive but there were four specific areas that needed to be addressed.

“When comparing our results to the other 48 school districts in Wyoming, I personally am pleased when we are in the top 10 [in terms of proficiency]. My expectation is always to be in the top 15, last spring’s results had us ranked in the top 15, where I expect us to be, in 10 of the 14 areas. Out of those 10 we were ranked in the top 10 in seven of the 14 areas tested and in three of these areas we were ranked in the top, one of the top 5 school districts in Wyoming,” Budmayr said. “Mr. Phelps [Ten Sleep School Superintendent] asked me one time, ‘where do you come up with wanting them in the top 15,’ and I just think that’s where we ought to be, I’m pleased when we are in the top 10 and I’m disappointed when we are not in the top 15 and in four of the 14 areas tested we were not and we are going to find out why and try to prevent it from happening in the future,” he added.

The four areas that Budmayr feels needs to be addressed are:

— Third-grade math where Ten Sleep students ranked 26th in the state, with an average of 50 percent scoring proficient or above, state average was 52.46 percent.

— Sixth-grade reading where Ten Sleep students ranked 27th in the state with an average of 55.56 percent, state average was 58.25 percent.

— Fifth-grade reading where Ten Sleep students ranked 30th in the state with an average of 62.50 percent, state average was 62 percent.

— Sixth-grade math where Ten Sleep students ranked 34th in the state with an average of 44.44 percent, state average was 50 percent.

Budmayr explained to the board that he plans on addressing the issue to figure out what the problem is and that he will be discussing ways to remedy the issue with staff and report back to the board at the September meeting about what the staff feels the issue is and ways to fix it.

“There were four areas in which we ranked in the bottom half of the 48 districts and we will be examining closely why we struggled in these specifics four content areas. At our in-service we are going to break this down between elementary and high school staff and we are going to examine the results actually with the kids. Basically what we do is identify each individual student as either advanced, proficient, basic or below basic and then we dialog on, especially, why it is they are there and come up with solutions on whether it’s curriculum, whether it’s instructional method, whatever it could be to identify what we have to do differently with those kids and then we will reexamine that at Christmas time to see if we have made any progress,” Budmayr said. “We need to identify why we dropped off and explore this and try not to let it happen anymore,” he added.

On a positive note, Ten Sleep students ranked in the top 15 in proficient or above in 10 of the areas tested.

— Eighth-grade students ranked third in the state in science with an average of 62.50 percent proficient or above, state average was 47 percent.

— Third-grade students ranked fourth in the state in reading with an average of 75 percent, state average was 58.74 percent.

— Fourth-grade students ranked fifth in the state in reading with an average of 80 percent, state average was 64.41 percent.

— Eighth-grade students ranked eighth in the state in math with an average of 62.60 percent, state average was 48.8 percent.

— Seventh-grade students ranked ninth in the state in math with an average of 62.50 percent, state average was 47.29 percent.

— Fourth- grade students ranked ninth in the state in science with an average of 66.67 percent, state average was 55.34 percent.

— Fifth-grade students ranked ninth in the state in math with an average of 75 percent, state average was 58.33 percent.

— Seventh-grade students ranked 12th in the state in reading with an average of 52.50 percent, state average was 56.47 percent.

— Fourth-grade students ranked 12th in the state in math with an average of 66.67 percent, state average was 58.80 percent.

— Eighth-grade students ranked 13th in the state in reading with an average of 62.50 percent, state average was 54.72 percent.

The 2016-2017 school year was the last year for the PAWS testing which tests Wyoming third through eighth graders on their proficiency in math and reading and tests fourth and eighth grades on their proficiency in science. Wyoming students starting in the 2017-2018 will take WY-TOPP [Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress] which tests students in grades three through 10 in reading and math and fourth, eighth and 10th graders in science.

 
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