Educators and government workers have to create a lot of acronyms, just by the nature of their work. This page is intended to clarify the meanings of the acronyms you are likely to run into.
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- 21CCLC: The 21st Century Community Learning Centers seek to create community learning centers that provide academic enrichment opportunities for children, particularly students who attend high-poverty and low-performing schools, to meet state and local student standards in core academic subjects; to offer a broad array of enrichment activities that can complement the regular academic programs of students; and to offer literacy and other educational services to the families of participating children.
- ACT: American College Testing, a standardized test used for college admissions in the United States. It was first introduced in November 1959 by University of Iowa professor Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the Scholastic Aptitude Test. All high school juniors in Wyoming take this test.
- ADM: Average Daily Membership.
- AG: Attorney General.
- AIS: Achievement Indicator Score.
- AP: Advanced Placement.
- APR: Annual Performance Rating.
- AT: Assistive Technology.
- AYP: Adequate Yearly Progress.
- BIE: Bureau of Indian Education. BIE’s mission is to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with a tribe’s needs for cultural and economic well-being, in keeping with the wide diversity of Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages as distinct cultural and governmental entities.
- BOCES: Board of Cooperative Educational Services. BOCES provides a method whereby school districts and community college districts or any combination may work together and cooperate to provide educational services, including but not limited to postsecondary education, vocational-technical education, adult education and services for children with disabilities, when the services can be more effectively provided through a cooperative effort.
- BOE: Board of Education
- CACFP: The USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program. Provides aid to child and adult care institutions and family or group day care homes. The aid goes to providing nutritious meals and snacks, and makes these centers affordable for many low-income families.
- CBA: Curriculum-Based Assessment.
- CCK: Common Core of Knowledge.
- CCR: College and Career Readiness.
- CCS: Common Core of Skills.
- CCSS: Common Core State Standards outline what level of understanding and knowledge is expected of students at each grade level in various content groups. Wyoming adopted the Common Core State Standards as the Wyoming Content and Performance Standards of 2012 in the areas of math and English language arts.
- CCSSO: The Council of Chief State School Officers. This is an organization of public officials who head elementary and secondary education departments nationwide, committed to providing equitable education to every student.
- CEARDY: The Council for Educators of At-Risk and Delinquent Youth. Headed by the National Partnership for Juvenile Services, this organization consists of educators who teach in correctional facilities, special education programs, alternative schools, residential programs, day treatment, and mental health placements.
- CFR: Code of Federal Regulations.
- COMPS: Court Ordered or Medically Necessary Placement of Students.
- CPL: Composite Performance Level.
- CS: Content Standards.
- CTE: Career and Technical Education. This curriculum takes the skills taught in core classes like Math and Science, and pairs them with practical applications found in classes like Engineering, Robotics, and Medical Career Training.
- DAS: District Assessment System.
- DEG: Distance Education Grant.
- DOE: Department of Education.
- DOH: Department of Health.
- EAEC: Educational Attainment Executive Council aka Attainment Council.
- ECDC: Early Childhood Development Center
- ELA: English Language Arts. ELA covers Reading, Literature, Writing, and Speaking and Listening.
- ELL: English Language Learner. This is any student whose first language is anything other than English, and needs linguistic assistance to fully participate in the regular curriculum.
- ELP: English Language Proficiency.
- ERIC: Educational Resources Information Center.
- ESEA: The Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Provides federal grants to schools serving low-income areas and scholarships for low-income students.
- ESL: English as a Second Language is program model that delivers special instructions to students who are learning English as a second language.
- ESSA: The Every Student Succeeds Act. This act replaced No Child Left Behind in 2015. Provides a national academic standard for students and aids accountability reporting, among many other provisions.
- ESY: Extended School Year.
- FAPE: Free Appropriate Public Education.
- FAST: A multifamily group intervention designed to build protective factors for children (4 to 12 years old) and empower parents to be the primary prevention agents for their own children.
- FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions.
- FAY: Full Academic Year.
- FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
- FOIA: Freedom of Information Act.
- GATE: Gifted and Talented Education.
- GE: General Education.
- GPA: Grade Point Average.
- GTE: Gifted and Talented Education.
- HLC: Higher Learning Commission.
- HS: High School.
- IDEA: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This is a federal law that ensures that children with disabilities have access to free, public education that is specifically tailored to their individual needs. This education is designed to prepare them for future education, as well as employment and independent living.
- IEP: Individualized Education Program. This is a statement written for a student with a disability. The statement is developed by a team of professionals that are knowledgeable about the student and the parent, and it is re-evaluated at least once a year. The plan describes the strengths of the student, the concerns of the parent, and the services needed by the student.
- IQ: Intelligence Quota.
- JEC: Joint Education Committee.
- JEIC: Joint Education Interim Committee.
- K-12: Kindergarten through 12th grade.
- PK-12: Preschool through 12th grade.
- LEA: Local Education Agency.
- LD: Learning Disabled.
- LPL: Literary Performance Level.
- LRE: Least Restrictive Environment.
- LSO: Legislative Service Office.
- MAP testing: An association offering a formative assessment item bank that contains more than 70,000 standards-based items for mathematics, English Language Arts, science and social studies, all aligned to the appropriate standards in all 50 states.
- MGP: Mean Growth Percentile.
- MOU: Memorandum of Understanding.
- MS: Middle School.
- NAEP: The National Assessment of Educational Progress. This assessment is administered in 4th and 8th grades in Reading, Math, and Science. The NAEP is required every two years by the Every Student Succeeds Act, and is sometimes informally called “The Nation’s Report Card.”
- NASBE: National Association of State Boards of Education.
- NCES: National Center for Education Statistics (U.S. Department of Education). NCES: sponsors the National Forum on Education Statistics as an effort to support federal-state-local cooperative efforts to improve the accuracy, timeliness, and utility of education data.
- NCLB: No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (federal).
- OCR: Office of Civil Rights.
- PAC: Parent Advisory Committee.
- PIC: Professional Industry Career Permit.
- PLC: Professional Learning Communities. PLCs are defined by collaborative inquiry, shared decision-making and joint planning of instruction among teachers. Teachers are provided structured time to work together in planning instruction, observing each other’s classrooms, and sharing feedback.
- PLD: Performance Level Descriptors.
- PS: Performance Standards.
- PSR: Post-secondary Readiness.
- PTSB: Professional Teaching Standards Board.
- RFP: Request for Proposals.
- RIF: Reading Is Fundamental. Founded in 1966, Reading Is Fundamental is the leading voice for children’s literacy. The organization addresses, “the alarming literacy crisis in America today through strong leadership, quality content, and an active and engaged community.”
- RTI: Response To Intervention is a multi-level prevention system designed to reduce behavioral problems in students, allowing them to achieve greater success.
- SAT: Scholastic Aptitude Test.
- SBAC: The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium is a group of states that is developing an assessment to measure subjects taught in the Common Core State Standards.
- SBE: State Board of Education.
- SD: School District.
- SEA: State Education Agency.
- SPED: Special Education.
- SGP: Student Growth Percentile.
- SRO: School Resource Officer. The United States Department of Justice defines school resource officers as, “Sworn law enforcement officers responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools.”
- SSoS: State System of Support.
- STAR: Summer Technical Assistance Retreat conference. STAR is a professional development opportunity for Wyoming School Districts. Topics include Wyoming’s ESSA State Plan, ESSA implementation, EDGAR compliance updates, Homeless Education Workshop, 21CCLC Coordinator Training, Federal Programs updates, Consolidated Grant Applications, and Perkins Grant updates.
- STEAM: Often called STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. STEAM has Art in addition to these others. STEM curriculum shows students how all five of these are connected, and sparks their curiosity about these subjects. It’s also project based, which gets students used to working in the real world.
- TAC: Technical Advisory Committee.
- UWCOE: University of Wyoming College of Education.
- VE: Virtual Education.
- WACTE: Wyoming Association for Career and Technical Education. WACTE provides activities for teachers, counselors, and administrators that both support and enhance career and technical education programs throughout the state.
- WAEA: Wyoming Accountability in Education Act. This law takes into account measures specifically related to educational goals in Wyoming. Federal accountability is transitioning from the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to a locally controlled Wyoming accountability system that meets federal guidelines defined in the recently passed Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
- WAEMSP: Wyoming Association of Elementary and Middle School Principals.
- WASSP: Wyoming Association of Secondary School Principals.
- WAHPERD: Wyoming Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. The Wyoming Association is an educational and service organization, structured for the purposes of empowering, encouraging, supporting, and providing assistance to its membership, professional, students, and the public, as then seek to initiate, develop, and conduct programs in health, leisure, and movement-related activities for the promotion of healthy lifestyles and the enrichment of human life.
- WAPSD: The Wyoming Advisory Panel for Students with Disabilities. This panel is an advisory agent to the Director of the WDE on Special Education issues.
- WASA: The Wyoming Association of School Administrators collaborates with education leaders, and provides them with training and a network of leadership. It also seeks to influence the state legislative process for the betterment of Wyoming schools.
- WASEA: The Wyoming Association of Special Education Administrators promotes professional development and administrative leadership and works toward continued improvement of funding for equitable services for all students with disabilities.
- WAVE: The Week of Academic Vision and Excellence conference. The WAVE is an annual conference that brings together national and state leaders in education to share knowledge and expertise on best practices, quality instruction, regulations and law requirements.
- WEA: The Wyoming Education Association. They provide a wide range of professional education services in communities throughout the state, working to help improve public education and the lives of Wyoming’s students.
- WCCC: Wyoming Community College Commission.
- WSBA: Wyoming School Boards Association.
- WDE: Wyoming Department of Education.
- WHSAA: Wyoming High School Activity Association.
- W.S.: Wyoming Statute.
- WSUP: Wyoming School University Partnership.
- WPTA: The Wyoming Pupil Transportation Association. This group consists of district transportation administrators, and is focused on all things related to safe pupil transportation.
- WY-TOPP: The Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress. WY-TOPP is a system of interim, modular on-demand, and summative assessments in English language art, mathematics, and science.
- YRBS: The Youth Risk Behavior Survey was developed in 1990 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to monitor priority health risk behaviors that contribute markedly to the leading causes of death, disability and social problems among youth and adults in the United States.