Wyoming school board elections, 2016

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Elections

General elections for Wyoming school boards were held on November 8, 2016. The two Wyoming school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held school board elections for eight seats in 2016.

Here are several quick facts about those school board elections:

• The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2016 was the Laramie County School District 1 with 13,635 K-12 students.
• The smallest Wyoming school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2016 was the Natrona County Schools with 13,116 K-12 students.
• Of the two districts, Natrona County Schools had the most seats up for election with five on the ballot; Laramie County School District 1 had three seats on the ballot.

The district listed below served 26,751 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each and its school board elections.

2016 Wyoming School Board Elections
District	General date	Regular term (years)	Seats up for election	Total board seats	Student enrollment
Laramie County School District 1	11/8/2016	4	3	7	13,635
Natrona County Schools	11/8/2016	4	5	9	13,116

Election trends

Trends in Wyoming school board elections

See also: School boards in session: 2014 elections by the numbers

The following sections analyze competitiveness and incumbency advantage in school board elections held in Wyoming's largest school districts by student enrollment. Details of the data discussed here can be found in the table below.

Competitiveness

Eight school board seats in Wyoming's largest school districts by enrollment were up for election in 2016. In 2014, eight seats were on the ballot, and 15 candidates ran in the elections. That created an average of 1.88 candidates per seat, which was close to the 2014 national average of 1.89 candidates per seat. No school board seats up for election in Wyoming were unopposed in 2014. Nationwide that year, 32.57 percent of school board seats were unopposed.

Incumbency advantage

See also: Analysis of incumbency advantage in the 2014 school board elections

Half of the school board incumbents whose terms were on the ballot in Wyoming in 2014 ran to retain their seats, and 75 percent of them won. Nationally, 81.37 percent of incumbents won re-election in 2014.

Five newcomers were elected to school boards in the state in 2014. They took 62.50 percent of the seats on the ballot, which was higher than the 38.19 percent of school board seats that went to newcomers nationally in 2014.

The map below details the success rates for incumbents who ran in the 2014 school board elections that were held in the largest school districts by enrollment in the U.S.

Data table

Wyoming school board elections, 2014 - 2016
	2014	2016
All candidates
Seats up	8	8
Candidates	15	TBD
Candidates/seat	1.88	TBD
Unopposed seats	0	TBD
% unopposed	0.00%	TBD
% seats won by newcomers	62.50%	TBD
Incumbents
Sought re-election	4	TBD
Unopposed	0	TBD
Retained	3	TBD
% retained	75.00%	TBD

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Wyoming

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Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The table below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to three neighboring states (Idaho, Montana, and Utah), Wyoming had the highest percentage of fourth grade students score at or above proficient in math.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Wyoming	48%	38%	37%	38%
Idaho	40%	36%	33%	38%
Montana	45%	40%	35%	40%
Utah	44%	36%	37%	39%
United States	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables"

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Wyoming and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

Wyoming schools reported a graduation rate of 77 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, lowest among its neighboring states.

In Wyoming, more students took the ACT than the SAT in 2013, earning an average ACT score of 19.8.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Wyoming	77%	Fourth	19.8	100%	1757	4%
Idaho	N/A	N/A	22.1	49%	1364	99%
Montana	84.4%	Third	21.3	72%	1595	25%
Utah	83%	Third	20.7	100%	1684	6%
United States	81.4%		20.9	54%	1498	50%
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores" The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Wyoming was higher than the national average at 5.4 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 4.3 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Wyoming
	Wyoming	U.S.
Total population:	586,555	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	97,093	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	91%	73.6%
Black/African American:	1.1%	12.6%
Asian:	0.9%	5.1%
Native American:	2.2%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.7%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	9.6%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	92.3%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	25.7%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$58,840	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	12.7%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Wyoming. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Wyoming

Wyoming voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

More Wyoming coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Wyoming
• United States congressional delegations from Wyoming
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See also

Wyoming	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Wyoming List of school districts in Wyoming	School board elections, 2016 Wyoming school board elections, 2015 Wyoming school board elections, 2014	Education reform at the state and local levels (2016) School boards in session: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey