School systems located in the following counties: Big Horn, Park, Washakie and Fremont will all be hosting on-site External Reviews in October 2015.  AdvancED Wyoming does not want you to be at a loss as to what to do.  Consequently, the AdvancED Managing Office is planning regular communiqués to these school systems, but those communiqués are only useful if the proper individuals receive them. 

Watch for an email from Geri Fitzgerald requesting the most up-to-date contact information for the following individuals: 

• Superintenden
• Curriculum Director
• Tech Director
• Primary Contact for the district in terms of continuous improvement efforts

The individuals listed above will find our communications most useful.  As the emails are received, the expectation is that system-level leaders also will forward information on to those at each school who could benefit from the AdvancED Wyoming Managing Office’s guidance.  The primary audience of the managing office’s communications is system-level leaders.

Thank you for all who attended the AdvancED Wyoming Fall Conference. The energy and enthusiasm was awesome!  The state of education in Wyoming is changing and producing an excitement in the air. 

As we move forward, AdvancED Wyoming seeks session proposals for the Spring Conference, March 2-3, 2015 in Casper from any and all interested parties who would like to share:

• Best practices for the classroom—great tips and tricks
• Systemic best practices—describe the “how-tos” of continuous improvement and the impact it makes on student achievement and systems efficacy
• Technology integration sessions—we cannot hear this message enough
• Leadership sessions--Wyoming leaders tend to wear many hats, let’s help them focus on what is most important
• Exercise and nutrition and their influence on student achievement
• Parent Organizations—let’s visit with our PTOs and parent groups
• Instructional leadership sessions—who is helping instruction improve and how is it being delivered
• Instructional facilitator sessions—there is more to Instructional Facilitators than ELA and math, we want to hear what they can offer
• Professional organizations’ meetings—AdvancED can do all the arranging for you and conduct your meeting on-site during the conference  

We want our twice-annual conferences to serve many purposes: professional development, one-stop-shopping for educational information and an opportunity to network.

You may access the session proposal form by emailing either Karan Wright or Geri Fitzgerald or by accessing the proposal form on the AdvancED Wyoming Web page.  We already have received several requests for the proposal form.  There is no reason to wait.  We have set a new deadline.  Please submit session proposals no later than November 7. 

The data compiled from last year’s 789 classroom observations performed in the eight school systems reviewed  using eleot™ (Effective Learning Environments Observation Tool™) found that the #1 lowest-scoring Learning Environment was the Digital Learning environment.  Out of a possible score of 4.0, the Digital Learning environment in last year’s observed classrooms scored a 1.81. A closer look at how the eleot expects technology to be integrated is in order. 
The eleot™ expects the following:

•  students using technology to gather, evaluate and/or use information for learning
• students using technology to conduct research, solve problems and/or create original works for learning
• students using technology to communicate and work collaboratively for learning

Do these practices occur regularly in every classroom in your school system?  If not, why not?  What is holding you back?  Who can help you turn this around?  It is time to engage in some crucial conversations to move our school systems, schools and classrooms into the 21st Century.

AdvancED Wyoming has participated in school system accreditation for several years now.  Nevertheless, for some school systems this concept is still “new.” Dr. Bohling and Joe Simpson, at the Wyoming Department of Education, realized that accreditation and continuous improvement efforts were missing an important piece by excluding the system-level leaders and their processes and practices.  That is when AdvancED Wyoming and the Wyoming Department of Education decided to leverage the strengths of each entity to best assist the school systems and their schools with all improvement efforts and adopted AdvancED School System Accreditation.

Schools and school systems complete the exact same documents for accreditation and continuous improvement.  The systems are responsible for monitoring their schools’ work products. The expectation is that the systems will use the school reports as a springboard for communicating with their schools regarding student performance and improvement efforts.

The school system is the entity that AdvancED reviews and holds accountable for quality and effectiveness.  If the school system is ineffective, no matter how great the schools and their educators are, instructional effectiveness and student performance are jeopardized.

AdvancED provides a future focused framework for encouraging, guiding and monitoring improvement efforts that benefit students every day, every year!