State reviews education standards, salaries

Written on September 21, 2011 by Cassie-Ellwood in National

Many changes are being made in Wyoming during the first year of Gov. Matt Mead’s term in office, among which are considerations regarding the state of K-12 education.

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Teachers in Wyoming are paid, on average, a starting salary of $42,957 per year, according to Neville Kenning, a representative of the Hay Group, an international consulting firm. Other states in the region start at $32,932. While the difference could be attributed to the state’s relative affluence, legislators are concerned about whether the results measured in classrooms are commensurate with the amount of money being paid out.

At an informational meeting for legislators held in Casper last Friday, Kenning said he hated using a sports analogy, “But you can have a Yankee payroll and still get Dodgers’ performance.”

The statement would indicate there is still debate over whether other adjustments to educations such as cost of living adjustments for educators and paying for material costs are wise.

Wyoming pays higher amounts for education every year, according to the Associated Press.

“You can’t just purchase a high-quality education,” Rep. Matt Teeters, co-chair of the education committee, said in an interview with the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “That is why we are currently having such an intense conversation about accountability.”

Another conversation about accountability happened in Casper just two days before the meeting on costs, when the Education Accountability Advisory Committee met to outline a new proposal for teacher and student standards. The committee, which is made up of superintendents, school board members and principals from across the state, drafted a framework for a new system of standards-based education for Wyoming schools.

These recommendations, which were reached with assistance from consultants from the Center for Assessment, support a common core of standards in math and language arts instruction. This core, according to James Bailey, superintendent of Uinta County School District 1 and a member of the committee, is already supported by 34 of 36 districts surveyed throughout Wyoming.

Despite support from educators, the new emphasis on standards-based education has been questioned by legislators, who wonder whether the state loses too much local control over education and undefined increases to costs by aligning with national standards

Legislators, including Sen. Henry Coe, the other co-chair of the education committee, insist that they are in the fact-finding stage: “Right now we are just having the tools put in front of us for us to make policy decisions,” he said. “That is strictly what we are doing here.”