(Cheyenne, WY) – The Wyoming State Board of Education (SBE) will move forward with an evaluation of the current process used to develop and revise state standards. The board agreed to form a steering committee of SBE members to oversee the evaluation during its regularly-scheduled meeting on January 20, 2022.
Following a presentation on the history of standards and how the standard’s development process has evolved over the past thirty years, the board identified key questions the evaluation will address.
These include the volume of state standards in relation to instructional time, methods for collecting and utilizing stakeholder input, and innovative approaches to developing standards that would have a positive impact on the challenges facing teachers and students in the classroom.
The evaluation also will look at potential updates to the existing design criteria and evaluate the current structure and format of the state standards to ensure recent changes are working in all standard areas. The board emphasized collaboration with the Wyoming Department of Education to complete the evaluation.
“The Wyoming State Board is grateful for the hard work of the many participants of the standards review committees and the department staff who work tirelessly to support the development of standards,” said SBE Chairman Ryan Fuhrman. “Our evaluation is about finding improvements to the current system that can lead to improved engagement with stakeholders, more unified standards across the content areas, and increased capacity of schools to honor what we heard in our profile of a graduate listening sessions.”
Public testimony received during the meeting focused on the amount of standards across all 10 content areas and concerns about the time required for students to become proficient on the standards. Further public comment on state standards may be made to the SBE here.
Information on future SBE meetings is available on BoardDocs. Previous meetings’ minutes and materials may be viewed through the board’s website. Follow the SBE on Facebook and Twitter.