CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Elementary school students are beginning to show some improvement in reading proficiency.
Assessment results from tests given to school kids last spring were released Wednesday during the state Board of Education meeting in Charleston.
The annual assessment results measure proficiency in English Language Arts (ELA), math and science. Public school students including those in public charter schools and public virtual charter schools in the 3rd-8th grades and high school juniors were tested.
The overall numbers show some modest improvement including a 1% increase in proficiency for ELA and math when compared to testing done in 2023. Students reaching proficiency in Science stayed the same.
State School Superintendent Michele Blatt said there’s a great need for overall improvement but she also said there are some numbers that offer encouragement.
The numbers show a 6% increase in reading proficiency among third grade students while math proficiency increased by 1% in grades 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 2% among 4th grade students.
MORE see test results dashboard here
Blatt said there are now programs in place like the Third Grade Success Act, the Science of Reading and Ready-Read-Write for ELA and the new Numeracy program for math that can hopefully help keep those numbers stay on a good upward path.
“We’re very optimistic that if continue that trajectory and we stay the course on what we’re currently doing, with this back to the basics with our reading and math, that we’ll be able to continue to see those gains,” Blatt said.
Test results among high school juniors remains a challenge with just more than half of the students proficient in reading, 28% in science and just 18% in math.
State Board of Education member Greg Wooten said the numbers aren’t good.
“If we were looking at these stats for an athletic program, in any particular county, we’d be talking about firing a coach, we’d be talking about recruiting better athletes, we’d be talking about all kinds of stuff,” Wooten said.
Wooten and fellow board member Chris Stansbury pointed to some schools where proficiency was in the single digits. Wooten said in one particular county students were well above average in math proficiency in the lower grades but by the time they were upperclassmen in high school the numbers had dropped significantly.
“To me that suggests it’s a crisis of leadership. Let’s not let this cohort that’s 70 or 80 percent end up being 2 or 3 percent in few years,” Wooten said.
Blatt said currently only 50% of math teachers in the state are certified to teach math.
State School Board President Nancy White said that’s likely part of the issue.
“It is at those early grades where the fundamentals are developed especially with math and when it’s high school failing math, something was lost along the way,” White said.
Board member Debra Sullivan said there’s also the issue of the tests themselves. The tests for the early grades are developed by the state according to the state’s standards while the 11th grade test is an SAT that may or may not match with state standards.
“The SAT is not going to make any difference in a lot of students’ lives so they don’t take it seriously. We have a lot of work to do,” Sullivan said.
Blatt said those at the state Department of Education are beginning to examine the numbers and will offer help to individual counties and schools.
“We will work with our system of support through our school improvement office and others to start identifying where the strengths and weaknesses are across the state and what supports can we put in place, especially for the high schools,” Blatt said.