How HSC High School tracks and improves student achievement

Hot Springs County High School Principal Catelyn Deromedi devoted her district share presentation, during the Hot Springs County School Board meeting on Aug. 17, to how the high school has acted to bolster student achievement by more rigorously tracking students’ progress.

Deromedi explained that, in every academic year, school districts throughout the state receive accountability ratings from the Wyoming Department of Education.

According to Deromedi, those ratings encompass achievement growth, equity, extended graduation, on-time graduation, post-secondary readiness and grade 9 credits.

“Our school stands proudly in the top 5% to 10% of high schools in the state,” Deromedi said.

Deromedi elaborated on how research enables schools to forecast students’ academic futures, and thereby improve upon them, because if students fail courses during their freshman year, they have to make up those courses in subsequent years, which can be challenging.

Deromedi laid out how this data has been tracked since the 2016-17 school year, and during the initial year of tracking, eight ninth-grade students failed 15 classes.

“Subsequent years revealed increased challenges,” said Deromedi, who added that 10 ninth-grade students failed 41 courses the following year, but during the 2022-2023 school year, only one ninth-grader failed one course in the first semester, and none failed any courses in the second semester.

Even when expanded to all the high school’s grade levels, Deromedi reported that “our school witnessed a mere two students failing a course” this past school year, compared to 26 students failing 86 courses during the 2016-17 school year.

“The frequency of failed courses significantly influences timely graduation rates,” Deromedi said. “Our dropout rate has also dropped, by more than half.”

Deromedi pointed out that the high school’s “dropout” count includes several categories of students regardless of whether they go on to graduate, including those who enroll in the HiSET and GED programs, those who graduate within five years, those who register for online schools that are not accredited, and even special education students who graduate after more than four years, as well as some students who are assigned elsewhere by the courts.

Deromedi touted how the high school tracks student achievement even to the weekly level, citing the first semester of the 2022-23 school year as including 39 Ds and Fs scored by 28 students in its 20th week, whereas the 20th week of the first semester of the 2016-17 school year saw 211 Ds and Fs scored by 95 students.

“We have really worked on our systems of interventions and supports at the high school,” Deromedi said. “Kids are no longer stuck in a never-ending cycle of being on that D-and-F list.”

Deromedi emphasized that the high school wants to have fewer failed courses, not only by its ninth-graders, but by all of its students, so that those students can achieve high graduation rates and low dropout rates in turn.

“But if we didn’t track this data on a weekly as well as a semester basis, I don’t think we would have these results,” Deromedi said. “It’s because of what we’re checking along the way that we can make sure this happens.”

Deromedi also expressed pride in how the high school is not watering down its curriculum to try and meet the state’s achievement standards, so that she can say “our students are receiving grade-level or higher content” in their education, which she believes empowers them to be “successful post-high school, whether they choose careers, college or the military.”