A new performance and accountability framework in Natrona County School District will measure school progress and achievement by sticking "excelling," "unclassified" and "focus" tags on individual subject areas.

The framework is a work in progress, according to Superintendent Joel Dvorak. District officials collected and reviewed two years of performance data before creating the new model.

"We want to develop a strong habit at all levels of looking at data to inform all our decisions," Dvorak said.

Unclassified means a school's performance is satisfactory, while focus means a school needs to improve.

The new framework will use scores from the Proficiency Assessment for Wyoming Students and growth assessments to hold schools accountable for student progress. Accountability will be based on improvement in reading, writing and math.

Only elementary schools will follow the model until more data about middle- and high-school achievement are collected. Additional indicators for accountability will be added as the model develops.

Up to now, Adequate Yearly Progress has been the district's primary accountability measure. Schools have long used growth assessments to monitor individual student progress.

Relying on AYP for accountability doesn't provide a whole picture of improvement, said Mark Mathern, associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction. Mathern has been a key player in developing the framework, which he said also honors improvement efforts and offers autonomy to excelling schools.

"Our district is saying there is more to a child and more to a school's efforts [than just AYP]," Mathern said.

Mathern also said the framework gives the district a more proactive role in school improvement, something it has perhaps lacked in the past.

"It's one thing to send a notice to a focus school and say, 'See you next year,'" Mathern said. "We have been a district where we have basically said to schools, 'You're in charge of your own destiny. Make it work.'"

Schools will fall into four levels of support in the framework. Level one supports include regular visits from a curriculum and instruction team and are offered to all schools regardless of their classification.

Level two support is for schools with one or more content areas designated as a "focus" for one year. Peer review of the school's improvement plan is required, as is an academic classroom walk-through with a curricular supervisor, principal and instructional facilitator.

Level three is for schools with the same content area designated as a "focus" for two years. At this stage, a student progress monitoring plan is implemented and the school participates in a "purposeful reflection" with a district curriculum and instruction team.

A school reaches level four support when the same content area is designated as a "focus" for three years or it has a "focus" in more than one content area for two years.

Level four requires the school to work with an external partner on improvement plans, which may include reallocation of funding. The external partner then becomes an ongoing consultant for the school.

Mathern said an outside consultant is used at this point because the district does not have the support required for a level four intervention. A partner has not been chosen.

Principal Phil Hubert said North Casper Elementary's staff members will meet next week to review the framework in detail. There is a definite need for the framework, Hubert said, though implementing it will take a commitment from all.

"We're looking forward to it," Hubert said. "It does provide us some direction on how to take those next steps."

Reach education reporter Jasa Santos at (307) 266-0593 or at Jasa.Santos@trib.com. Read her blog at Jasa.Santos@trib.com.

Level field

The Natrona County School District will implement a measuring system to monitor progress at individual schools, assigning each school excelling, unclassified and focus labels for core subjects - reading, writing and match. Here's a look at the standards, based on the labels, that will be applied to each school:

LEVEL ONE: All subject areas designated as "excelling" or "unclassified."

LEVEL TWO: Schools with one or more subjects designated as "focus" for one year.

LEVEL THREE: Schools with one subject designated as "focus" for two years.

LEVEL FOUR: Schools with one subject designated as "focus" for three years or with two or more subjects designated as "focus" for two years.