Wyoming Legislature Has Conflicting Views On Public School Assessment

The statewide student assessment exam also known as PAWS has been a continuing issue with public schools and legislative officials. The latest issues that are now coming to a head is that of conflicting views on whether the statewide exam can be used in determining the classroom performance of teachers.

The Wyoming Legislature passed a law earlier this year seeking to hold school teachers and administrators accountable for how well students perform in school. The Select Committee on Statewide Education is working on implementing the law but they have heard a number of conflicting views. A major detail being looked at is that of how to measure teacher performance.

As of now it looks like the best way of determining teacher accountability is by using the Proficiency Assessments for Wyoming Students or PAWS test. However, according to Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Cindy Hill, PAWS was designed to measure school performance and not teacher performance. The issue will be discussed again when the committee meets in December.

Do you currently have a child in school? We want to know what you think about PAWS and how students, teachers and administrators performances are assessed, just leave a comment below!

Information courtesy of Associated Press of Wyoming.