Senate debates school accountability

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Credit Max Klingensmith / Creative Commons

"Empty Desks"

The Wyoming Senate has given initial approval to a bill that would rate schools on student performance. 

The school accountability measure was amended by the Senate to say all schools that do not exceed pre-determined academic targets would have to develop improvement plans. 

The House version of the bill said meeting targets was sufficient.  

Senator Chris Rothfuss of Laramie says the Senate is shooting for a higher bar. 

“If you are meeting expectations, you still have plenty of improvement to do because you are probably not meeting it in every category,” says Rothfuss. “If you were meeting it in every category, you’d be exceeding expectations at that point, based on how this was structured.”

Senator Charles Scott was concerned that the House removed language that would have allowed a principal to be fired if a school did not meet targets for two consecutive years. 

Rothfuss shared Scott’s concern that removing the section weakened the bill, and he suggested strengthening that section when debate on the bill continues on Wednesday.