A district staff member reported that the Wyoming State Board has split the rules previously in Chapter 31 into two separate chapters: one focused on graduation standards and the other on assessment systems. The board said the change separates expectations for graduation — including a profile of seven key competencies — from the state’s assessment and accountability rules.

The staff member said the new graduation standards will require districts to assess and document student progress on a set of competencies and that districts must create “learning progressions” to monitor at least a subset of those competencies. The district speaker described the approach as widening pathways for students to demonstrate mastery beyond seat-time and traditional course credit.

Staff discussed pilot projects the state board is asking districts to consider, called “student success plans,” that could be tested this year to see how local learning-progress models might interact with state accountability measures. The district speaker cautioned the changes will add significant implementation work for local districts and underscored open questions about how the accountability weighting might change.

The meeting also noted the state has awarded the next five-year statewide assessment contract to Pearson; district officials said this replaces the current vendor for YTOP assessments after the current contract ends. No local policy actions were taken at the board meeting; members asked staff to keep the board informed as state guidance and timelines become clearer.