Wyoming Board of Education to Reconsider Draft Computer Science Standards
CHEYENNE – The Wyoming State Board of Education will hold a full-day meeting in Riverton beginning at 8 a.m. on Thursday, April 25, at the Fremont County School District #25 board room located at 121 North 25th St. The SBE will first convene as the State Board of Vocational Education to hear an update from the Wyoming Department of Education and vote on the State Perkins V Transition Plan.
The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) was signed into law by President Trump on July 31, 2018. This bipartisan measure reauthorizes the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which provides roughly $1.3 billion annually in Federal funding, administered by the U.S. Department of Education, for Career and Technical Education for our nation’s youth and adults.
The goal of passing Perkins V into law was to expand students’ educational pathways and opportunities and give states and local communities greater flexibility in how best to prepare students for the jobs of today and in the future.
Some of the key provisions in the new law require extensive collaboration among state- and local-level secondary, postsecondary, and business and industry partners to develop and implement high-quality CTE programs and programs of study. Introducing a needs assessment to align CTE programs to locally identified in-demand, high-growth, and high-wage career fields are also required.
Strengthening the CTE teacher and faculty pipeline, especially in hard-to-fill program areas, including STEM; Promoting innovative practices to reshape where, how, and to whom CTE is delivered; Expanding the reach and scope of career guidance and academic counseling; and shifting responsibility to States to determine their performance measures, including new program quality measures, and related levels of performance to optimize outcomes for students are provisions that have been assessed by WDE.
After adjourning the SBVE, the SBE will convene and will hear reports from board coordinator Dr. Thomas Sachse on administrative procedures parts two and three, legislative interim topics, “Basket of Goods” review committee, and an update on BoardDocs.
During their March meeting, the SBE took testimony from many individuals regarding the draft Computer Science standards encouraging the board to refine the standards to make them more accessible, especially at the elementary grade levels. The SBE voted to fund another two-day meeting of the Computer Science Standards Review Committee to consider revisions to the draft standards. The committee met April 8-9 in Lander.
The SBE will receive the revised draft Computer Science Standards during its April meeting, take public comment, and consider advancing the standards to the formal rulemaking process. The WDE will present on a grant for SCRIPT Training, which includes support for school districts with Computer Science deployment and strategic planning.
The SBE also will receive an update from the WDE on the Certified Personnel Evaluation Systems, including leader and teacher evaluation. The SBE will take action on regular and emergency Chapter 29 Rules on Leader Evaluation.
The complete April meeting agenda is available here. All meetings are open to the public, who may join in person, online via the Zoom platform or may call in at 646-558-8656 using access code 452-354-8969.