New Education Website Panned

Laramie, Wy – The Wyoming Department of education says a new website can be helpful, but they say it should not be the gospel when it comes to how well students are doing in the state. The website called school matters-dot-com is a product of Standard and Poor's. It is intended to help citizens see how education locally and statewide compares. Citizens may also make a similar comparison across the country. But that makes state school officials concerned because of the way some of the numbers are compiled. Vince Meyer of the Wyoming department of education says state officials have tried for years to separate out specific subject areas, so that parents and others can see how students are doing. Meyer says this website takes a different approach. (In Wyoming) we have a reading section, a writing section and a math section. They (Standard and Poor's) have collapsed all of that down into a single score, not only across subjects but also across grades.
Meyer says that makes it difficult to accurate comparisons and comparisons in context. However, Meyer still thinks there is enough information on the site that people can get some use from it.