CCSD No.2 PAWS scores show improvement

At its Wednesday meeting, Carbon County School District No.2 (CCSD 2) board of directors discussed the district’s performance on the state standardized PAWS test, on which the district showed improvements in scoring on math and reading across most grade levels.

The scores show improvement among the district’s students and mean the district’s curriculum—which is tied to common core academic standards—has a sufficient degree of academic rigor needed for the district to continue to improve, Jim Copeland, CCSD superintendent of schools told the CCSD board of directors. Encampment Junior High School students tied for first place for the percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced in reading.

The results on the PAWS test comes amid news that next year, the state will no longer use the PAWS test after this year, and will be looking to replace the assessment with another test.

The district showed improvement in math and reading scores in all grades from third to eighth, with improvements in ranking by student cohorts across all grades over last year’s scores. On the science test, which is only given to fourth and eighth graders, the percentage of students scoring either proficient or advanced decreased for 4th grade and decreased for 8th grade.

Statewide, the district scored 8th place in math, 13th in reading and 12th in science, and was ahead of the state average in all areas.

In math scores, CCSD students in most grades from 3rd until 8th increased their percentages of students scoring proficient or advanced. The average improvement for all grades district-wide was 12 percent, with only the 4th grade class showing a decrease in the number of students with proficient or advanced rankings. The district-wide average for all grades is 62 percent of students being proficient or advanced. The state average is 52 percent, and CCSD’s ranking is 8th in the state. Sheridan 2 school district was ranked highest in the state with 76 percent of students scoring proficient or advanced in reading.

According to data published by the Wyoming Department of Education, the best performing elementary school in CCSD for math are Hanna Elementary and Saratoga Elementary which virtually tied at 68 percent proficient or advanced. Due to small sample sizes at Encampment K-12, Elk Mountain Elementary and Medicine Bow Elementary, no statistically significant data can be calculated.

Among CCSD junior high students, Encampment K-12 students scored highest with 75 percent of students testing proficient or above, and Saratoga Middle/High School students coming in at 46 percent. Hanna/Elk Mountain/Medicine Bow Junior and Senior High School scored with greater than 90 percent of 8th grade students scoring basic or below, and only fewer than 10 percent of HEM 8th graders scoring proficient or advanced, according to the figures provided by the state department of education.

CCSD students reading scores place the district 13th in the state for the number of students judged to be proficient or advanced in reading skills, with the district scoring an average of 65 percent across all tested grade levels district-wide. Grade by grade, the average increase in percentage of students who are proficient or advanced in reading skills was 8.83 percent, with the largest increases being for the 5th and 8th grade cohorts. The 6th grade cohort decreased by 4 points.

According to the State data, Encampment K-12 elementary students scored highest in the district on reading, at 66 percent at proficient or advanced levels. Sixty-three percent of Saratoga students scored proficient or advanced, and the sample size of students at Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain Elementary schools are not sufficient to draw a meaningful inference.

Encampment Junior High students tested with over 90 percent of 7th graders and over 80 percent of 8th grade students scoring proficient or better in reading. According to the state data, Encampment 7th grade students are tied statewide for first place with seventh graders at Snowy Range Academy in Laramie for students achieving proficient or advanced reading levels.

HEM junior high students performed with 66 percent scoring proficient or better. At Saratoga, 54 percent of Junior High School students tested proficient or better. Saratoga’s 7 and 8 grade cohorts both showed slight improvement over their performances last year.

Results in science for the district were lower, mirroring a statewide trend. District wide, the CCSD #2 percentage of students scoring proficient or better in science came in at 54 percent, with a statewide average of 48 percent. The district with the highest percentage of students testing proficient or better was Sheridan 2 district with 64 percent of students scoring proficient or better.

CCSD elementary schools outperform the state average for elementary schools. CCSD #2 elementary schools average 66 percent of students scoring proficient or better on science once factoring out Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow elementary schools which have too small a population for meaningful measurement. The statewide average for elementary schools is 56 percent after factoring out schools across the state with student populations too small for meaningful statistics.

At the junior high and high school level, CCSD #2 schools had 42 percent of students testing as proficient or advanced in science, which is the same as a statewide average for middle and high school students across the state. Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow Junior/Senior High School had 55 percent of students testing into the proficient or advanced category, while Saratoga had 47 percent and Encampment had 25 percent, but the Encampment had a very small sample size of between six and nine students.

Earlier this month, the state department of education announced that PAWS testing will be phased out, and the department will soon be soliciting bids for an alternate test to measure students’ success.