State Board of Ed on stalled test scores: 'We can, and must, do better'

Jim Bissett, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
·2 min read

Aug. 11—The aftermath of COVID-19 still continues to cast a long shadow over West Virginia's public education fortunes.

That was evident this past week in Charleston, when the state Board of Education, meeting in regular session, discussed the most recent assessments in math, reading and science scores that came from classrooms this past year.

A total of 44 % of the state's seventh-graders were proficient in English language arts for the 2023 assessment, which is two points up from last year.

That same degree of gain in math — 35 %-versus last year's 33 % proficiency rate — came in this year for students in that grade.

Seventh-grade science scores were 1 % better over last year, according to the assessment.

While there were no substantial drops in scores for all the grades tested from elementary school to high school, there weren't any major jumps up the grading scale either.

Paul Hardesty, the state board's president, talked about the academic holding pattern during the meeting.

"We can, and must, do better, " he said.

Both the state board and the state Department of Education, he said, can do that by continuing to push training and support service to 55 public districts in West Virginia.

Two weeks ago, 700 math and reading teachers across the state gathered in Morgantown for a development conference to do just that.

That was also the time Monongalia County Schools wrapped up its month-long Summer Avalanche learning enrichment camps for students across all grade levels here.

Those camps came about with the help of federal dollars advanced to the local district that were designed to help students and teachers alike to hopefully make new gains after the pandemic, which forced schools here and elsewhere to pivot to remote-learning at its height.

"Our kids need to be in front of their teachers, " Mon Deputy Schools Superintendent Donna Talerico told The Dominion Post previously.

"They need to be in school."

Michele Blatt, West Virginia's state schools superintendent, echoed Hardesty in her assessments In a place known for mountainous terrain, the upward climb, she said, will continue.

The school system she oversees, she says, isn't anywhere near where advocates and others "want it to be " — which means leaning into the climb even more.

"We are encouraged by the enthusiasm among our administrators, " she said, "as well as our educators, school staff, families and partners."

Mon's first day of school is Aug. 22.