Campbell County school district employees support state reduction of education standards

GILLETTE — A statewide reduction in education standards – a victory Campbell County School District teachers and administrators say has been hard fought – will enable Wyoming teachers to give their students a better understanding of each subject, according to district employees.

Fewer standards overall, or elements of instruction students are required to learn by a given grade, will give teachers more time to teach “mastery standards,” or standards crucial to understanding each subject, with greater rigor, they said.

While the state has already completed the process of reducing standards in some subjects, meaning schools will be able to modify their 2025-2026 curriculum in those areas, other subjects still have a ways to go before their new standards are solidified, said Campbell County High School science teacher Christy Mathes.

Math, science, fine arts, performing arts, computer science and physical education will all see a reduction in state standards next year.

Mathes said that in practice, the difference will largely come down to time allotment.

Instruction covering mastery standards, such as the law of conservation of energy, would touch on more specific standards, such as being able to draw an atomic model, but wouldn’t have to share an equal amount of time with them.

She said being able to drill into foundational elements of each subject — and having the time to teach students how foundational lessons from each subject affect them in the real world — will make a big difference for education.

“That’s been the biggest piece that’s been missing from our education,” Mathes said. “We haven’t been able to say why it matters.”

That reduction will be reflected on next year’s Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress, or WY-TOPP, the state’s subject competency assessment test.

“All those standards that we cut – they won’t go away,” said CCSD’s Director of Curriculum, Assessment and Professional Development Brandon Crosby. “But … they’re not going to be on a WY-TOPP test in grades three through five or six through eight, and we may not teach them at the rigor and in the length of a unit that we would other standards we refer to as supporting standards.”

Crosby quoted research by education researcher Robert Marzano saying it’s impossible to tackle every standard teachers are currently saddled with covering throughout the year. There aren’t enough hours in the day, even if instruction went year-round, he said.

Students from kindergarten through second grade will see an overall standards reduction — in math, science, P.E., health, performance and fine arts and computer science — of 70.6%. Third- through fifth-graders’ standards will drop by 66.4%, sixth- through eighth-graders’ by 64.9%, and high schoolers’ standards will decrease by 73.6%.

The standards reductions for the state’s youngest students were keyed to give English and math the greatest priority.

From kindergarten through second grade, students in the state are required to learn 70 math standards. Next year, that’ll be reduced to 31, equaling a 55.7% reduction. Those students will only be tested on their math and English skills beginning next year, Crosby said, though they’ll still receive instruction in all other subjects.

“They’re still going to get STEM, they’re still going to get art, P.E. and music and science and social studies,” Crosby said. “We just won’t have to take instruction time to give them as many assessments as we’ve had in the past.”

Schools throughout the state are required to teach 10 content areas, including English language arts, math and science, but it’s up to each district to design a curriculum to teach them.

Crosby said that after WY-TOPP was first administered in 2017-2018, school districts throughout Wyoming began prioritizing the state content standards that would be tested that year in their instruction. In response, the State Board of Education developed “performance” standards, or standards that should be prioritized — and would be tested.

Mathes said overwhelming standards and standard assessments prompted the state to begin the process of filing them down in 2022.

In the three years since, the Wyoming Department of Education has brought together educators from across the state to make recommendations for what core standards should stay, and when they should be taught.

The new math and science standards were released in August of 2024.

This story was published on April 3, 2025.