Schools best norms in state testing

County schools performing above state average

By Sarah Pridgeon

Crook County’s schools performed better than the state average this year in 17 of 19 tested areas, which include English Language Arts, math and science across grades three through ten.

“The schools all did well,” says Superintendent Mark Broderson.

“Both Sundance schools are exceeding expectations, Moorcroft Elementary is meeting expectations and Moorcroft Secondary and Hulett are partially meeting. We will continue to work on areas of concern, but I feel like the buildings are going in the correct direction.”

He attributes this success not only to the schools, but also to the students and their families.

“I think the communities in Crook County have good kids and good schools with caring adults,” he says.

“We continue to work to provide better atmospheres in our schools and appropriate rigor to challenge students and promote growth.”

Overall, Crook County’s 60.1% proficient score for English Language Arts placed the district joint fifth among the 15 districts categorized as medium in size in Wyoming and represented a 3.5% increase from last year.

Students in almost every grade exceeded the state average for proficient or advanced this year – in grades six and below, by around 10%.

The tests showed that 63% of third grade students are proficient in English Language Arts, the third highest score among medium districts and a 5.9% increase from the 2022-2023 school year.

In fourth grade, 59% of students scored as proficient, which is a 0.3% increase from last year and the sixth highest score among medium districts.

Fifth graders were 65.9% proficient, the second highest score recorded for medium districts and a 4.2% increase from last year.

In sixth grade, 69.4% of students were proficient, also an increase from last year of 4.6% and the third highest score among medium districts.

The score of 58.2% of seventh graders who were proficient was a 3.3% increase from last year and the seventh highest among medium districts.

63% of eighth graders tested as proficient, which was a 15.5% increase from the 2022-23 school year and the ninth highest score for medium districts.

Only in ninth and tenth grades did the percentage drop year-to-year. In ninth grade, 48.8% of students tested proficient, a 4.3% decrease, while the 51.2% of tenth graders was a drop of 2.7%.

Crook County’s students also scored higher on math this year. Overall, 61.4% tested proficient, which is a 3% higher score than last year and the fourth highest among medium districts.

More students tested proficient or advanced in almost every grade than the state average. In some cases, the difference was considerable, the fifth grade score of 76.14% was much higher than the state average of 52.3%, for example, while the sixth grade score was 73.47% compared to a state average of 52.72%.

The number of third graders testing proficient was 64.5%, which was a drop of 5.7% from last year but still the eighth highest score among medium districts.

68.7% of fourth graders tested proficient, which was the third highest score among medium districts and a 4.6% increase from the 2022-2023 school year.

In fifth grade, 76.1% of students tested proficient, which was a 2.6% drop from last year but still the second highest score among medium districts.

Sixth graders also came second among small districts with 73.5% proficiency, an increase of 6.5% from last year.

In seventh grade, 43% of students tested proficient, which is a drop from last year of 9% and the tenth highest score among medium districts.

The eighth grade score of 59% proficiency was an improvement of 17.2% from last year and the seventh highest among medium districts.

In ninth grade, 53.5% of students tested proficient, which was a 7.2% increase and also the seventh highest score.

Finally, in tenth grade, 53.7% of students tested proficient, which was an increase from last year of 7.6% and the eighth highest score.

Crook County’s science proficiency dropped very slightly this year, by 2.5%, to an overall score of 55.7%. This placed the district sixth among medium-sized districts.

However, all three of the grades tested scored higher in terms of the number of proficient or advanced students than the state average.

67.1% of fourth grade students tested proficient, the third highest score but a 3.6% drop from the 2022-23 year.

Eighth grade students tested 51% proficient, also a small drop of 1.5% from last year but the fifth highest score among medium districts.

In tenth grade, 50% of students tested proficient, a very slight drop of 0.6% from last year and the twelfth highest score.

Superintendent Broderson hopes to see the state make some changes to testing in the future.

“Our students are tested a lot and keeping them excited for tests each year can be a challenge,” he says.

“The state is working on reducing the length of some of the exams, which may help.”