Wyoming Department of Education
2300 Capitol Avenue, 2nd Floor
Cheyenne, WY 82001
What is school accountability?
A school accountability system provides information about the quality of education received by Wyoming students to help determine which schools are doing well and which schools are in need of assistance. There are two types of accountability systems: a federal school accountability system known as No Child Left Behind and a state school accountability system known as the Wyoming Accountability in Education Act.
Accountability involves more than school accountability but for now school accountability is the only kind being measured.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB), is the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the principal federal law affecting K-12 education. For more information about federal school accountability, click here.
Wyoming Accountability in Education Act (WAEA) is the statewide education accountability system enacted by the legislature in 2013 (W.S. 21-2-204), and established by the state board through the department of education. For more information about state school accountability, click here.
What’s the difference between the NCLB system and the WAEA system?
While the general goals of both systems are the same, the largest difference between the two systems is that they use different measures to evaluate overall school performance. Under NCLB, schools are measured by Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) calculations, while WAEA uses a different set of measures to create an annual School Performance Report (SPR). The two systems may produce different results; for example, a school that is rated as “in need of improvement” according to the NCLB could be “exceeding expectations” under WAEA.
Wyoming’s school accountability model was developed according to the Wyoming Comprehensive Accountability Framework: Phase 1 Report with validity concerns in mind, which is the reason each accountability system – state and federal – can yield potentially opposite conclusions about a school’s performance.