Dear Superintendents,
The third of five virtual town hall meetings to discuss the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) took place yesterday. The topic of this session was school improvement. Under NCLB, school improvement strategies and turnaround tools were limited. Wyoming and other states now have the responsibility to ensure that our strategies and supports are meaningful and systematic. We are well on our way with the Statewide System of Support. While we will need to be more prescriptive in identifying, assisting, and allocating fund to the lowest performing schools and schools with less than 67% graduation rate, it remains the intent to provide support and assistance to all schools and districts by leveraging the expertise and knowledge at the national, state, and local levels. This is an exciting component of ESSA.
Information about ESSA, Wyoming’s virtual town hall meetings, links to audio recordings, powerpoint presentations, and other input opportunities can be found here.
Last week Wyoming submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Education in response to proposed ESSA rules on accountability. While there were over 20,000 comments or sets of comments submitted, only about half of the states submitted. Wyoming will continue to vigilantly review and comment on proposed rules, regulations, and guidance wherever it veers from congressional intent and/or does not fit well in our state. Here is a link to comments submitted by other states.
One of many “tweets” from the 2016 Roadmap to STEM Conference
Two statewide training opportunities, hosted by WDE, took place this week. Thank you for helping make both a success. If you don’t already, please take a moment to follow WDE on Twitter and Facebook where you can view photos and read about educators from your district and around the state engaged in professional development. At the STEM conference, science educators across the state were recognized and applauded for their work. Here is the link to the press release. At the WAVE conference, Carolyn Connor, from Thermopolis, was honored as the Special Education Director of the year. Here is a link to the press release.
Next week, the Native American Education Conference will be held in Riverton. We anticipate a record number of participants and we are anxious to have important conversations with educators, community members, tribal leaders, youth, and others.
One of many “tweets” from the 2016 WAVE Conference
Memos to be released on Monday, August 8, 2016:
- Memo 2016-090: Final Title I Part A, Title II, and Title III Allocations
- 2016-090-attachmenta: Title I Part A July Final Allocations
- 2016-090-attachmentb: Title II Final Allocations
- 2016-090-attachmentc: Title III Final Allocations
- Memo 2016-091: USED Needs Sensing Survey
- Memo 2016-091: WIDA Workshop: Interpreting ACCESS for ELLs Score Report for Instruction
Jillian
