Anderson Elementary has year of honors and excellence

In recent years, Anderson Elementary has received honors including National Distinguished School, Wyoming School of Distinction, and was part of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder’s Tour of Excellence.“Our achievement has gone up every year but one since the first year of WY-TOPP,” Principal Sean Gorman said.

The Wyoming Department of Education’s achievement assessment, WY-TOPP, was first administered in 2017.

“I was excited when we got to 60. The next year we got to 62 and then 66. Last year was our best year at 75,” he said.

Additionally, last year, Anderson’s fourth-grade science students had the highest proficiency score in the entire state for any grade level. Gorman credits science teacher, Bryce Ramsey’s efforts.

“We always look at growth more than achievement, but when you are growing at an atypically high level consistently with a large number of kids, that is going to influence your proficiency score over time,” Gorman said.

Every student receives a growth score from the WDE. Gorman explained when students receive their WY-TOPP scores, they are placed in academic peer groups with other similarly scoring students. The next year, their scores are compared to those of the students in their group. The growth score is determined by how much progress a student makes compared to others in the group. The WDE reports this information through its school performance report.
“They have three categories: exceeds target, meets target or below target,” Gorman said. “Obviously, you want your growth percentile to be as high as possible. I think that’s the best indicator from a statistical standpoint that your school is doing something right and your teachers are doing a great job of growing kids academically.”

Along with a laser-like focus on growth, Gorman credits high-quality teaching and relationships for making the difference in students’ lives.
“It’s just common sense if a kid loves their teacher and there’s a high level of trust and mutual respect, they will do better academically,” he said. “Through the hiring process, we really look for people who have a proven track record or the potential to become excellent teachers.”

Third grade teacher Lindsey Woods said the first month of school is dedicated to building relationships and establishing norms for cooperative learning.
“Building relationships is central to how we teach,” Woods said. “We strive to know each student, their strengths, interests, challenges and identities. We collaborate closely with colleagues, specialists, and families to ensure all students are supported.”

Anderson Elementary teachers use the formative teaching cycle, which Gorman describes as a group of well-researched instructional strategies that work well.
First-grade teacher Katie Finnoff said, “We start by establishing a clear learning target with success criteria, so students know exactly what is expected. Student exemplars are used to help students know the expectation. We then provide students with immediate feedback. The loop is closed by students self-assessing their work and using that to set goals. We constantly look at the data and celebrate growth.”

Kindergarten teacher Danielle Alexander said, “To ensure that students are continuing to grow we do a lot of progress monitoring, often informally in kindergarten. We use this to adjust lesson planning, especially pace within the lessons of our curriculum.”

Alexander said teachers also offer daily intervention time where they place students into smaller groups so they can target individual needs. Teachers collaborate to ensure they are doing everything to help struggling students.

“I am very proud of our teachers,” Gorman said. “Anderson is one of only four schools in the entire state that rated exceeds target in all three categories (achievement, growth and equity) of the WDE’s school performance report for the past two years. I think what makes this school unique is just the quality of teaching that I see on a day-to-day basis.”