The Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) is partnering with the Wyoming State Board of Education to approve a statewide system of support before the quickly approaching school year gets underway.

"Basically since November/December we've really worked on making sure that the statewide system of support meets the needs of our most struggling schools as intended in federal regulation as well as the accountability bill," said State Superintendent Jillian Balow.

Dr. Mark Stock with the University of Wyoming's Center for Educational Leadership (WyCel) says raising student achievement requires differentiation.

"What each school needs is not the same in every school, so there are unique needs," said Dr. Stock. "Our state system of support cannot be one dimensional or requiring everybody to do the same things."

Superintendent Balow says the state system of support has largely been delivered from the top down over the past five years and there needs to be a cultural change in Wyoming education.

"As we think about a statewide system of support and the thought of a systemic system of support, that's really what we're going for, we're going for that cultural change," said Superintendent Balow. "And in our smaller districts that may mean some of that cross-district collaboration or some of that vertical collaboration between first grade teachers and kindergarten teachers. It may mean that we're reliant on technology a bit more than we are in Laramie County 1. It may mean different things to different school districts, but I think that the genesis of this proposal is really born from the bottom up."

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