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Wyoming school leaders agree to ‘monumental’ remake of K-12 education

Wyoming school leaders agree to ‘monumental’ remake of K-12 education

Wyoming’s top education leaders have agreed to collaborate on pilot projects that could kickstart the remaking of the state’s K-12 education system.

In a first, a formal partnership will unite the Wyoming State Board of Education, Wyoming Department of Education, University of Wyoming and Gov. Mark Gordon’s office and their educational initiatives to put all of the state’s power behind transitioning education in Wyoming toward a system that’s center on individual student progress rather than seat time.

“Our listening carefully to educators across Wyoming reveals a hunger for student-centered innovation and competency-based approaches to teaching and learning,” Scott Thomas, the dean of UW’s College of Education, said in a statement. “This deliberate collaboration represents a signal moment for innovating education and advancing children’s learning throughout the state.”

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Riverton High School

Desks at Riverton High School are pictured on Feb. 9. 




The State Board of Education, which includes Thomas and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, voted Thursday at a meeting in Riverton to formalize their cooperation and start on pilot projects that will move some schools toward competency-based learning, allowing them to focus more on the individual learning of students.

The pilots will be voluntary for schools, but those that join will change how they instruct and assess students.

Two paths forward

Diana Clapp, the coordinator for the Wyoming State Board of Education, presented members of the State Board of Education with two options.

In the first, the group will collaborate with schools and communities to expand on the work that they are already doing around competency-based learning. Schools would “mainstream” the programs they already have in place, such as career readiness and technical training programs, so that they reach more students.


Gordon initiative calls for remaking of Wyoming's education system

The group would guide the schools through the transition, helping them with planning and giving them the support that they need to scale competency-based education. The Wyoming School-University Partnership, an alliance between school districts, community colleges, UW and state education organizations, would serve as a hub, acting as a facilitator so that schools could share their work and learn from one another.

The second option would involve starting from scratch. It would include the complete reorientation of pilot schools and pave the way for “systemic change” in Wyoming education.

The state would place pilot schools into small groups, which would then work together with the Department of Education, State Board of Education and the others to transform how they teach students. The schools and their communities would focus on the “application and transference of learning, personalized learning experiences, and alternative demonstrations of competency,” moving students away from seat time and traditional testing and assignments, according to a State Board of Education memo.

Outside experts would help the schools, which would open up their graduation requirements so that students could earn credits for educational opportunities outside of school. For example, instead of requiring a student to take a biology or environmental science course with exams, they may earn credit by working with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department on research. 

In both pilots, schools would reconsider course and graduation requirements, give more weight to opportunities such as internships, capstones and work-based learning opportunities, and would allow students more flexibility to work at their own pace and follow their interests. The schools would also emphasize learning through projects.

“The willingness of the Governor, State Board and University to partner with us on this call for innovation is the key to our state achieving student centered education that best prepares students for the workforce,” Degenfelder said in a statement.







Megan Degenfelder

Martin Carman, 12, shows now Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder how to fly a drone on Aug. 11 at Code Ninjas in Casper. Degenfelder is a former Department of Education administrator and worked for an energy company before taking office.




The state’s education leaders have yet to decide on a particular direction and have yet to select schools, but they will begin to outline plans for the pilots in the coming weeks, said Linda Finnerty, a spokesperson for the Department of Education.

Degenfelder said during the board’s meeting that the goal is to begin the pilots next fall.


Degenfelder prioritizes teacher retention, school choice in first 90 days

An audible excitement swept those at the State Board of Education as they discussed the pilot projects and the shift toward competency-based learning.

“You’re talking about changing the bedrock essentially of education,” Lachelle Brant, Gordon’s education policy adviser, told the State Board of Education.

The board’s members acknowledged that the pilot schools could be the start of a monumental shift for Wyoming’s K-12 education.

“Sometimes a person gets on a board and you don’t really know what you’re supposed to be doing or what you’re accomplishing,” said Ellen Creagar, a member of the board and a social science and business professor at Eastern Wyoming College. “This isn’t that board folks. This is a board that’s really moving, shaking and making big, important, positive change for students and changing the face of education in Wyoming. It’s exciting.”

Bringing together initiatives

Competency-based education essentially means moving from a system in which students mold to education to one in which education molds to individual students.

It’s going from school desks lined up in rows, students listening to a PowerPoint lecture, to tests that ask a student to successfully perform a science experiment. It’s students taking the knowledge and skills that they build and applying them to the world outside of the classroom.

Competency-based education is premised on the “mastery” of a subject, not a test score or the time spent in a classroom.

Each of the four state bodies has led their own push toward competency-based education.

US Reading and Math Scores , Fell Sharply During Pandemic, , New Data Reveals. National Assessment of Educational Progress scores of fourth-grade students were released by the Education Department on Sept. 1. The scores reveal the most significant drop in math and reading scores for nine-year-olds in decades. The age of students is considered developmentally crucial. The scores are considered a prominent indicator of educational performance and economic outlook. Education scholars lamented the news, saying it is unlikely that the students affected by the pandemic will be able to catch up in the coming years. I don’t think we can expect to see these 9-year-olds catch up by the time they leave high school, Dr. Aaron Pallas, Teachers College Columbia University, via ‘The Wall Street Journal’. This is not something that is going to disappear quickly, Dr. Aaron Pallas, Teachers College Columbia University, via ‘The Wall Street Journal’. According to ‘The Wall Street Journal,’ . some scholars believe it could take decades for many students to return to pre-pandemic academic performance levels. COVID-19 shocked American education and stunted the academic growth [of students], Peggy G. Carr, National Center for Education Statistics Commissioner, via ‘The Wall Street Journal’. Average scores for math fell seven points from their pre-pandemic levels. Average scores for reading fell five points from their pre-pandemic levels. The numbers are the steepest decline in scores since 1990



The Department of Education and UW’s College of Education have focused on teachers, using the approach as a new way to train and certify educators. For Wyoming students, the most notable steps have come from Gordon’s office and the State Board of Education.

Gordon announced the creation of his Reimagining and Innovating the Delivery of Education (RIDE) initiative in May 2021. He asked the advisory group to broadly study how Wyoming could better prepare its K-12 students amid concerns about state funding for schools.

The group started a public input process to hear what Wyoming’s “consumers” – students, parents, businesses and educators – wanted from schools. It released a survey and held more than a dozen listening sessions across the state, producing a report in December that called for the remaking of Wyoming’s education system to focus on individualized learning for students.

In its report, the advisory group recommended the state strengthen career-connected education and change its K-12 system so that students progress through school based on academic mastery of subjects.

Gordon’s RIDE initiative paralleled an ongoing effort from the State Board of Education triggered several years before when the addition of computer science standards for K-12 raised questions about graduation requirements.

The State Board of Education started public outreach for its Profile of a Graduate initiative in March 2021 as it looked to shape Wyoming’s high school graduation requirements. The board asked Wyomingites to share the skills and knowledge that they wanted to see from the state’s graduates.

A survey and dozens of listening sessions revealed that the state’s residents wanted graduates to have seven key competencies, including mastering, applying and transferring foundational knowledge and skills, communicating effectively, and thinking critically.

While the State Board of Education and Gordon’s RIDE advisory group communicated with one another, their work was siloed – even as they found the same appeal of competency-based learning.

The vote Thursday at the State Board of Education marks the first time that all four state bodies have agreed to work together to advance competency-based learning in Wyoming.

“It is an honoring of the voices of the people of Wyoming,” Clapp told the board.

But while the board, UW, Department of Education and Gordon have bonded together, they still face a challenging road ahead.

A transition to competency-based learning is an enormous task and will not happen overnight. Board members acknowledged that the most significant obstacle will be educating parents, schools and communities about what may seem like a radical change.

Yet, they shared resolve that competency-based learning is the future of K-12 education in Wyoming.

“We’re all really in this together,” Degenfelder said.

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Everyone can now agree — the US has a border crisis

Everyone can now agree — the US has a border crisis



CNN
 — 

A pointless argument battered Washington for substantially of this calendar year above regardless of whether the southern US border is in crisis. But no 1 is now doubting the chaos and likely migrant surge that could be brought on by an imminent policy change next 7 days.

The expiry on Wednesday of a Trump-era order that exploited community health justifications in the course of the pandemic to change away countless numbers of migrants is predicted to seriously strain an by now stretched border, immigration and asylum technique.

The Department of Homeland Protection unveiled Thursday an crisis 6-level approach to tackle the disaster as Republicans planning to take over the Home brandished the likely chaos as evidence of their claims of gross White House negligence more than the border.

Even some Democrats are warning that an big influx of immigrants next 7 days could induce various adverse outcomes. Critics say the administration took way too extensive to interact on the issue and hasn’t completed ample, however they also fault Congress for failing for many years to reform the immigration system and border enforcement – a objective that polls frequently show the public supports.

“We have a leak,” Hidalgo County Decide Richard Cortez explained on “CNN This Morning” Thursday. “We need to have a plumber to occur and halt the leak. And instead, what we’re performing is we’re sending us far more buckets to keep the drinking water.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the meantime instructed ABC News this 7 days that the expiry of the plan known as Title 42 could overburden his state’s potential to cope. “The fact is, what we have obtained ideal now is not doing work, and it is about to crack in a publish-(Title) 42 globe except we consider some duty and possession,” he claimed.

Deputy Lawyer Basic Lisa Monaco instructed CBS Information she was nervous about an maximize in “illegal migration” and drug smuggling. Some Democratic jurisdictions, like New York City for instance are currently battling to cope with immigrants who have presently arrived as they brace for more.

Title 42 was launched early in the Covid-19 unexpected emergency and authorized officials to change absent particular categories of migrants. But critics say it not only abused the concepts of general public well being, primarily by being in drive so extensive, but that it was a cruel and unfair infringement of the human ideal to make an asylum assert. A federal decide in Louisiana blocked a previous bid by the Biden administration to terminate the order, but a federal choose in Washington struck it down in November, declaring it “arbitrary and capricious.”

Amid expanding worries that massive teams of migrants waiting around in Mexico could cross above the border subsequent week, Biden’s crew reported Thursday it was surging assets to the region, bettering processing performance for immigration claims, imposing repercussions for illegal entry, bolstering nonprofit potential, targeting smugglers and functioning with intercontinental companions.

But it has typically appeared like the White Household desired to discuss about something but the border to keep away from political blowback and that the administration lacked urgency in tackling immigration as a total – just one of the most nettlesome challenges for this president and his predecessors. Republicans have demanded Biden take a look at the border, nevertheless the political theatrics bordering such a excursion could now cloud any attempt by the president to provide clarity on a deeply complex problem. Still, Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas stated on CNN “This Morning” Wednesday that the president must go anyway.

“I really do not know why they keep avoiding the border and indicating there is other issues much more vital than traveling to the border,” he mentioned. “If there’s a disaster, show up. Just present up,” Cuellar reported.

And in an additional setback to Biden’s attempts to conclusion some of Trump’s controversial immigration guidelines, a federal decide in Texas has paused the administration’s most new endeavor to finish the so-called “Remain in Mexico” system, which sends particular non-Mexican citizens who entered the US back to Mexico – instead of detaining them or releasing them into the United States – whilst their immigration proceedings played out.

It is perfectly inside the new GOP majority’s right to examine the administration’s failure to stem a increase in encounters with border crossers in Biden’s term and the depth of its immigration policy as a entire. US border authorities encountered much more than two million migrants in fiscal 2022, in accordance to US Customs and Border Security figures produced in Oct – up from 1.7 million in 2021. Conservatives say this is proof of an “open border” that suggests a lot of far more migrants get by means of in a state of affairs that endangers national security. Several Democrats argue that substantial figures of migrants face border agents in various makes an attempt to cross into the US just after they are repeatedly sent back again.

But additional broadly, the expiry of Title 42 is also a microcosm of a poisonous debate more than immigration, demagogued by conservative media and distorted by some Republicans for a political jolt that has created a multi-layered worldwide and domestic concern impossible to remedy for decades. Previous President Donald Trump’s severe rhetoric and chaotic hardline approach even further poisoned the properly more than this situation and still left the immigration process in chaos.

Some users in the new GOP Home the greater part that will consider around upcoming month feel more determined to impeach Homeland Stability Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for a so-considerably unspecified large criminal offense and misdemeanor, in revenge for Trump’s double impeachment, than in doing work to find a extensive solution to a person of the nation’s worst difficulties.

And by shipping and delivery migrants to areas like Manhattan, Washington and Martha’s Winery, Republican governors like Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott of Texas in the meantime feel keener to score factors with possible Republican presidential most important voters by utilizing migrants as political pawns than to attract consideration to the stress borne by states in this disaster.

Republicans are ideal to spotlight the epidemic of deaths from fentanyl in the United States that is coming across the border from Mexico typically applying precursor substances from China. But they also spent four several years indulging Trump’s obsession with a border wall that does little to stem the influx of the narcotics that mostly arrives by means of border checkpoints, hid in autos by drugs cartels.

Yet another tragedy highlighted over Title 42’s expiration is rooted in the plight of migrants fleeing criminal offense, persecution, economic and social repression in central and South The usa who make a perilous journey to the United States, normally at the mercy of ruthless human traffickers and with no selected end result.

Biden assigned Vice President Kamala Harris to address the root leads to of immigration from nations in the Western Hemisphere. Her process is a fraught just one, looking at the corruption, unstable states and tensions concerning nations like Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and El Salvador and the United States – not to mention troubled relations in recent yrs among Mexico and Washington.

She argued at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June that no migrant preferred to go away household but that a lot of had been pressured out by dire circumstances. Harris has also sought to drum up non-public expense to mitigate the poverty that forces men and women to flee. But at the exact time, there hasn’t been significantly public evidence just lately that her efforts are bearing fruit or a feeling that an concern that provides significant political peril is her mind-boggling priority.

Any long-lasting option to border troubles would include a enormous financial commitment to secure the frontier, with limitations the place it will make perception but also with new monitoring technologies and manpower wherever walls really do not aid. It would handle the plight of undocumented migrants brought to the US as kids who are recognised as Dreamers. It would also supply a very long-term route to authorized status for hundreds of thousands much more undocumented migrants, develop asylum courts to expedite statements and reform the method of legal immigration and visas for migrant staff essential to handle economically damaging labor shortages in agriculture and catering industries, for instance.

But the political tradeoffs and goodwill essential for these types of a reform defied Congress through the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. A very last-ditch energy by Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and freshly unbiased Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema that would have led to the protections of Dreamers and new measures to halt border crossings in this Congress just fizzled.

It was the hottest indication that a broken Washington just can’t deal with a single of America’s most intractable troubles – a failure that repeatedly sales opportunities to predicaments like the 1 that will unfold at the border next 7 days.