School district superintendents share thoughts on Degenfelder's plan to reduce testing

SHERIDAN — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder last month presented her plan to reduce and streamline statewide assessments in schools to the Wyoming State Board of Education — a decision that has been met with mixed responses from local school administrators.

Included in Degenfelder’s Assessment Reduction and Efficiency Plan is the decrease of at least 30% in the number of items on the mathematics assessments in the third through eighth grade; removal of K-2 interim assessments; removing the third grade writing portion from the English Language Arts assessment; reducing ninth grade assessments from required to optional; reformatting high school math assessments by moving from current specific math subject areas to comprehensive math skills assessments; and adding diagnostic tools for parents and teachers, according to the plan.

“Throughout my campaign and during my first year in office, I kept hearing from parents, teachers, administrators and lawmakers that we need to reduce testing time,” Degenfelder said in an email to The Sheridan Press. “In reality, our state assessment only exceeds that of the federal requirements, so we started there. I also met with various groups of stakeholders to seek their input on what they wanted — they are the ones implementing at the school level after all. After meeting with dozens of district superintendents, principals, teachers and curriculum directors, we were able to take this feedback and create the plan.”

Sheridan County School District 2 Superintendent Scott Stults shared that he thought the shift was a largely positive one.

“When we reduce state assessments, certainly we’re reducing standards. That’s part of what the work of the state board (is) right now. That’s a good thing because again, you can’t teach everything that’s out there and that’s why we have to prioritize our standards because we can’t cover all of it,” Stults said. “So as a result, we have to boil it down to more critical (items) that we feel are more important to our district, and each district does it a little bit differently, but now they’re reducing that, so when you’re reducing that, then theoretically, the state assessment also gets smaller because there’s less assessments that are being assessed.”

While changing ninth grade assessments from required to optional will need change by legislation to become official, Sheridan County School District 3 Superintendent Chase Christensen believes it could create a difficult situation for schools.

“Right now, we’re required to test grades three through 10, and if students are taking the WY-TOPP, they know what it is, and then we all of a sudden give them a year off, and then the next year we ask them to take it again… I think that’s actually going to introduce a situation where there’s a little bit of a more difficult time for schools to comply than where we’re at right now, where students just know that, ‘WY-TOPPs are part of my school year. I’m going to take it at the end of the year.’ That’s not necessarily one that I would think would be best, but they are leaving it as optional. If it’s an optional test, my kids are going to take it,” Christensen said.

Although he had concerns about the proposed ninth grade changes, Christensen was quick to agree with reformatting high school math assessments from the current specific math subject areas to comprehensive math skills assessments.

“Absolutely, we have been asking for this for years. Right now, the freshmen are taking a test that’s 100% algebra. The sophomores are taking a geometry test, and there are high schools across the state that don’t teach algebra and geometry, they teach integrated math 1 and integrated math 2. I think it’s a great thing to be moving to an assessment that’s not subject specific,” Christensen.

Sheridan County School District 1 Jeff Jones shared his thoughts on Degenfelder’s plan in an email to The Sheridan Press.

“I am all about efficiency and doing the right work. Greg McKeown, author of books like ‘Essentialism and Effortless,’ says we need to ‘Build a platform for the effortless execution of the essential.’ As I read through Superintendent Degenfelder’s plan, it appears she is trying to accomplish that by assuring one of our most important resources, time to teach, is acknowledged in the accountability system. On the other hand, the work we do at the individual classroom level to assure timely feedback on student learning is our priority anyway. That is where the rubber meets the road for instructional planning and student growth whether they need support or need to be challenged,” Jones said in an email to The Sheridan Press.

“Mostly, I would love it if our state and federal accountability targets would remain in place long enough for the ink to dry,” Jones said. “Educators are caught in the middle. We have these deep indentations on the side of our head from the accountability pendulum swinging back and forth.”

Degenfelder said she believes streamlining and reducing testing will provide teachers with something they hold as a high priority: instructional time with students.

“While I deeply value accountability in education, we must not let bureaucracy get in the way of innovation in the classroom. By streamlining and reducing testing to a more reasonable level, we will provide teachers with more instructional time for their students across all Sheridan County School districts. Achieving this plan also requires true partnership with the State Board of Education and the legislature, and I am excited to begin those efforts,” Degenfelder said in her email to The Sheridan Press.

As for the next steps of the assessment plan, each portion of the plan has differing timelines based on what can be implemented by the Wyoming Department of Education, Wyoming State Board of Education and/or the Wyoming Legislature.

Some will be implemented in the 2024-2025 school year while others will only be implemented if there is action in the 2025 legislative session, Degenfelder said.

The changes to reducing the ninth grade assessments from required to optional and reformatting high school math assessments will require change by legislature in addition to the state superintendent and state board of education.

This story was published on July 2, 2024.