The West Virginia Department of Education’s yearly report on the performance of school systems and schools came out this month with praise of progress. It opened with “West Virginia continues to see improvements in student achievement in most grades, as demonstrated by the 2026 student assessment results.” It went on to share that “due to the hard work of administrators, educators, and students, the 2026 proficiency rates in math and English language arts now exceed 2019 pre-COVID proficiency rates over all and at most grade levels.”
Math proficiency increased overall from 38 to 39 percent, much of the growth seen in elementary and middle school grades. ELA proficiency remained the same at 48 percent. Science dropped from 30 to 29 percent, the 2024 level.
Since 2021, according to a WVDE chart, science has remained in the high 20s in percentage. ELA has improved in that period from 40 to 47.8 while math has jumped from 28.1 percent to 39.4 percent.
Despite a strong focus in recent years from the state and most local systems, “chronic absenteeism impacts student outcomes with a distinct correlation between” high absenteeism and poor student performance by 15 percent in ELA and 20 percent in math.
West Virginia’s prime challenge remains its second in the nation status “for most underprivileged children.” West Virginia’s prime challenge remains its second in the nation status “for most underprivileged children.”
The breakdown of the traditional family, the ripple effect of high rates of drug addiction, and other social issues have made home lives of children more difficult, making education a more difficult focus for them.
The most efficient manner to review results of the yearly assessment comes in the “Balanced Scorecard.” This provides charts showing where systems and schools lie on progress toward, and the maintenance of, standards. Different tests measure progress in different subjects in different grades.
Red means “does not meet standard.” Yellow indicates partially met standards. Blue shows that a school or system meets a standard while green indicates that they exceeded standards. However, how much of a bar is filled by the specific color indicates how close the school or system lies to the next tier.
Elementary schools are judged in three categories: academic achievement, academic progress, and student success.
Brandywine Elementary School met standards in both areas of academic achievement, English language arts and mathematics. Under progress, BES met standards in ELA and exceeded in math. Students met standards in attendance and exceeded them in behavior.
Franklin Elementary School fell slightly short of meeting standards in ELA and math under achievement, but met them in ELA in the progress category and partially met in math. FES met standards in behavior and attendance.
North Fork Elementary School fell under the partially met tier in ELA and math achievement, as well as ELA progress. Under progress, however, NFES fell just shy of meeting the “partially meets standards” tier. Attendance partially met standard, but behavior exceeded it.
The measure of high schools uses the categories of academic achievement, graduation rate/cohort, and student success. Student success metrics showed that Pendleton County Middle/High School met standards for students on track to graduate. While PCM/HS did not meet standards in “Post Secondary Achievement,” officials have expressed frustration in the past that the state has been vague on what that means or how to improve one’s standing in it.
In mathematics achievement, PCM/HS did not meet standards, but came very close to achieving the partially met standards tier. When looking across West Virginia, only the top tier of academically recognized schools even partially met standards. The vast majority of the state high schools were in the red.
Some of the top schools statewide, including Bridgeport High School in Harrison County, Hurricane and Winfield High Schools in Putnam County, and George Washington High School in Charleston, only score half of the bar on “partially meets standard.”
At the same time, measures seem to indicate from the elementary and middle grades that students have learned arithmetic adequately well. Numbers there progressed during last year.
West Virginia’s top ranked system on Schooldigger, which focuses only on metrics, is Jackson County. Neither Ripley nor Ravenswood, both ranked high among state high schools overall, met standards in math.
Sheena Van Meter has served as superintendent of Hardy County Schools since 2017 and recently accepted an offer to hold the same role in Harrison County. She states that the standard of assessment of mathematics uses the wrong metric to measure progress.
The state relies on the SAT as the measure of mathematic proficiency, which was originally designed to show the level of preparation of a student for college. Van Meter asserts that using the SAT for math provides an inaccurate idea of the future success of a student.
She explained that “30 percent of students in Hardy County go on to college” but that many others find success in other routes. They attend career and technical schools, receive workforce training at community and technical colleges, go straight into the workforce, or join the military.
Superintendent Van Meter illustrated that a trades student demonstrates their knowledge and capacity for growth already when they take the NOCTI exam. That for welding, for example, tests for safety, weld fit-up and quality, welding symbols and blueprint reading, and other tests of technical knowledge and also applied science. Yet all have to show knowledge on a college entrance exam even if they have earned Level 1 Certification in their chosen field.
Testing in the trades “is very different than taking the SAT,” she explained.
That does not mean that schools should pull back on math education, however. “We have used so much technology that we’ve gotten away from high-level thinking skills,” said Superintendent Van Meter. She urged that school systems need “to pull back on tech, bring the pencil and paper back. Teach math the old-fashioned ways.”
