PAWS and PAWS-Alt Scores Released Today... It's Good News!
CHEYENNE – The Wyoming Department of Education released the statewide scores for the Proficiency Assessment of Wyoming Students (PAWS) and Proficiency Assessment of Wyoming Students – Alternative (PAWS-ALT) today in Cheyenne.
The PAWS outcomes released today continue a two-year upward achievement trend. According to historical PAWS data, the percentages of students testing proficient or advanced in each of the tested subject areas, math, reading and science, are the best performances recorded by Wyoming's students. That is statewide across all tested grades. Among the highlights of the information release was 90.3 percent of third graders were measured at proficient and above proficient.
"When you see statewide improvement like we are seeing here, you know that it is not just one person or group making results like this happen," said State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Cindy Hill. "You know students, teachers and parents are working hard -- also know that bus drivers, our cafeteria staff, secretaries, support staff, our administrators, are all working together. When you see this kind of improvement you know communities are coming together around education."
All scores are available on the Department of Education's Fusion site. Student-level data used in the Assessment Resource Tool (ART) for aggregate scores is being updated to include banked scores from 2010-2011 for 11th grade students tested as 10th graders in 2010-2011.
Background
PAWS
A primary purpose of the Proficiency Assessments for Wyoming Students (PAWS) is to foster program improvement at the school, district, and state levels in support of the teaching and learning that takes place in Wyoming public classrooms and meets all of the attendant requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001(NCLB). In 2005–2006, PAWS became the official statewide assessment used to measure individual student achievement based on the Wyoming Content and Performance Standards in reading, writing, and mathematics for grades 3 - 8 and 11. In 2008, a science assessment was implemented for grades 4, 8, and 11.
PAWS is conceptually constructed as a criterion-referenced assessment with an instructionally-supportive design to include clear targets for instruction and informative reporting categories. PAWS results provide skill-level reporting categories aligned to the Wyoming Content and Performance Standards as organized by the Wyoming Assessment Descriptions to assist teachers to interpret and address specific academic needs of students.
PAWS-ALT:
Wyoming's alternate assessment, Proficiency Assessments for Wyoming Students–Alternate (PAWS–ALT), is designed for a small number of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. It is part of a statewide instructionally supportive assessment system which complies with the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA).
| 2012 PAWS Press Kit | Multi Media for PAWS Release 2012 |
| For 11th grade PAWS data see Fusion Site, as the Assessment Resource Tool (ART) is still updating 11th grade scores. | |