About the Wyoming P-16 Education Council

Vision

• Every graduate of Wyoming’s P-12 school systems will be prepared for successful entry into postsecondary study or the workplace.
• The state’s P-16 education sectors – pre-Kindergarten, K-12, and higher education -- will continuously adapt in order to meet the lifelong educational needs of all Wyoming citizens.

Mission

The mission of The Wyoming P-16 Education Council is to guide the development of a seamless statewide system of education in which all levels of education coordinate, communicate, and educate as one system rather than several. Specifically, The Council seeks to aid the continuous, coordinated evaluation and improvement of five related P-16 system components: academic standards, curricula, assessments, instructional quality, and system accountability.

Goals

• A Shared Vision: Wyoming’s vision for P-16 education must be developed and supported through a collaborative effort of the state’s education, business, and policy leaders; it must be understood and endorsed by the public.
• A Shared Plan: The plan for reaching the state’s vision for P-16 education through coordinated change in policies and programs at every level of the system must have clear proximate benchmarks that can be used both for establishing Council effectiveness and for sustaining members’ commitment to Council work. Roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders must be stated clearly.
• Policy Coherence: The entire package of P-16 education policies at the state, district, and school levels must focus on standards-based improvement of student achievement.
• Program Coherence: Programs for students, teachers, or teacher educators intended to improve Wyoming’s P-16 system education — whether offered by the state’s department of education, school districts, institutions of higher education, businesses, or foundations — must be aligned with the state vision and with each other to avoid conflict of purpose or redundancy.
• Program Coordination: A system-wide plan must be developed for the coordinated implementation of five related components of P-12 education: student standards; curricula; student assessments; teacher quality; and system accountability. Moreover, the exit expectations of P-12 education must be aligned with the entry-level expectations of higher education and the workplace.
• P-16 Resource Alignment: Collaboration in the use of federal, state, district, and private funds must take place to ensure that the P-16 education programs they support are complementary and are consistent with the shared vision for improvement of education. 
• Evaluation and Refinement: The Council must collect data designed to assess how well its plan for improving education is working at all levels of the P-16 system. The plan itself must include a procedure for continuous refinement based upon what is learned from evaluation of its effectiveness.
• Public Communication and Engagement: The Council must develop procedures for reporting periodically to each of several audiences — including state educators, business leaders, policymakers, parents, and the general public — its progress in implementing its plan to improve Wyoming’s P-16 system of education.

Structure and Authority

The Wyoming P-16 Education Council is a non-partisan, non-governmental, non-profit partnership of state leaders from business, education, and government. At the request of the Office of the Governor, it advises the legislatively mandated Wyoming Education Planning and Coordinating Council (WEPCC) on issues related to creating greater coherence in Wyoming’s education system from pre-Kindergarten through the baccalaureate degree (P-16). That advice is both self-initiated and in response to requests from WEPCC.

History

The work of The Wyoming P-16 Education Council has built upon the accomplishments of Wyoming Mathematics and Science Education Coalition (WMSEC) and WEPCC. They have: participated in the state’s standards-assessment alignment in mathematics and science for grades 3-8 and 11 and in the adaptation of the mathematics assessments for students with disabilities; guided to state approval a new teacher preparation program leading to an endorsement in the teaching of middle school mathematics; drafted a proposal for state approval of a program leading to an endorsement in the teaching of middle school science; and undertaken the examination of research on large-scale professional development as a basis for recommendations regarding the use of professional development funds in Wyoming.

During the period of its existence, WMSEC members:

• conducted business-education workshops that analyzed five components of Wyoming’s system of mathematics education and recommended routes to its improvement;
• designed and analyzed the results of a Return on Investment in Education survey instrument based on the productivity of six partnership structures identified by the National Alliance of Business; and
• secured a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build P-16 collaboration among business, education, and policy leaders in resolving issues of mathematics and science education and to seek additional funding to support the long-term work of a statewide P-16 education council.

Over the years, WEPCC has addressed a number of topics, some of which have been instrumental in the creation of legislation creating the new Hathaway Scholarship Program.

• WEPCC held initial discussions regarding the disconnect between parent expectations that their children were on track to attend an institution of higher education and teachers’ assessments that these same children were not enrolled in programs that would lead them to attend an institution of higher education. The Eighth Grade Unit of Study and the opt out form address this issue.
• The need for articulation among junior high/high schools, community colleges, and the university has been a recurring topic of concern. Indicators discussed included increasing numbers of students taking remedial courses at the community colleges and university, the growing interest in dual enrollment courses, and the difficulty of equating the K-12 standards with more traditional measures used in higher education.
• In 2004, WEPCC identified the goal of increasing the number of students attending higher education as a high state priority.
• The Hathaway Scholarship program and high school reform were the focus of the January 2006 WEPCC meeting.