Dear Superintendents,

This week the WDE announced a formal statewide partnership with the Future Ready Initiative. A number of Wyoming school districts preceded the state affiliation and we hope more follow suit. As a member of the Future Ready Initiative, we look forward to improving our infrastructure to support online education and increase students’ access to quality online education. Leveraging online education is a “no-brainer” for our remote and frontier state. However, a sense of urgency to expand the number of K-12 courses offered to students online can never overtake the priority to ensure that all instruction is aligned with standards, of high quality, and rigorous. Here are links to the WDE media release and an article in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

A teacher guides students in a computer lab as they learn how to code.

Students learn to code in Cheyenne as part of the Coders Of the West project. High quality coding instruction is one course that can be offered online.

Next week a number of meetings will be held across the state. Of note, the Joint Education  and Select Accountability committees will meet in Casper. This marks the first discussion about ensuring Wyoming education statutes are aligned with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Here is a link to the meeting packet with draft legislation regarding accountability (tabs J and K).

State Superintendent Jillian Balow and WDE Chief of Staff Dicky Shanor hold up a large signed poster surrounded by 5th grade students and their teachers.

State Superintendent Balow and Chief of Staff, Dicky Shanor, talk with 5th graders this week about the U.S. Constitution and branches of government

Chief Policy Officer Lisa Weigel stands in a meeting room with district superintendents from around the state.

Chief Policy Officer, Lisa Weigel, with members of the WASA executive committee and new Wyoming superintendents

Memos to be released Monday, September 19:

Jillian

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