West Virginia’s scores held steady on an education assessment called the Nation’s Report Card — but remain below the majority of states in academic performance.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress was administered last school year to a sampling of students who were in 4th and 8th grades at the time. Those students are now in 5th and 9th grades.
West Virginia still has room for improvement, but is making progress in some areas to return to levels achieved prior to the covid-19 pandemic.
“Despite West Virginia showing modest improvements in certain areas, the overall outlook for public education remains disconcerting,” said Tiffany Hoben, director of education partnership and strategy for the Cardinal Institute, a West Virginia nonprofit think tank that favors free-market policies, including school choice.
“According to NAEP’s recent scores, the vast majority of our state’s students are not meeting grade-level expectations in reading and math.”
For 4th graders in math, West Virginia was one of only 15 states in the country to experience increased performance. The average scale score for West Virginia 4th graders increased from 226 in 2022 to 232 in 2024.
Still, this was lower than the average score of 237 for students in the nation.
Although the West Virginia score was an improvement from a couple of years ago, it was not significantly different from students’ score of 231 in 2019, pre-pandemic.
More West Virginia students are performing at or above NAEP Basic in this category, which means they should show some evidence of understanding the mathematical concepts and procedures in the five NAEP content areas.
For eighth-grade math, no state saw increases in the average scale score. West Virginia was one of 49 states with no significant change.
Bottom line, West Virginia 8th graders increased from 260 in 2022 to 261 in 2024.
This was lower than the average score of 272 for students in the nation.
More West Virginia students are performing at or above NAEP Basic in this category, which means they should exhibit evidence of conceptual and procedural understanding in the five NAEP content areas.
This level of performance demonstrates an understanding of arithmetic operations — including estimation — on whole numbers, decimals, fractions, and percents.
In reading skills for 4th graders, West Virginia demonstrated small gains in average scale score from 205 in 2022 to 206 in 2024. That amount of improvement is not considered statistically significant
The reading score for West Virginia 4th graders was lower than the average score of 214 for students in the nation.
State officials pointed out that this test would have been administered before the state’s Ready, Read, Write initiative was fully implemented in classrooms.
More West Virginia students are performing at or above NAEP Basic in this category, which means they should be able to locate relevant information, make simple inferences, and use their understanding of the text to identify details that support a given interpretation or conclusion.
Students should be able to interpret the meaning of a word as it is used in the text.
For eighth-grade reading, West Virginia, like the nation and the region, experienced a slight decrease — from an average score of 249 in 2022 to 247 in 2024. That was not considered statistically significant.
West Virginia’s reading score was lower than the average score of 257 for students in the nation.
More West Virginia students are performing at or above NAEP Basic in this category, which means eighth graders should be able to locate information; identify statements of main idea, theme, or author’s purpose; and make simple inferences from texts.
They should be able to interpret the meaning of a word as it is used in the text. Students performing at this level should also be able to state judgments and give some support about content and presentation of content.
“These results are not a reflection on students,” said Hoben, a former public school teacher, state-level director and official with the Florida Department of Education.
“Despite billions in taxpayer dollars spent on public education, West Virginia has seen little return in terms of academic progress. It’s crucial now more than ever for the state to prioritize academic transparency, ensuring that funds are allocated effectively and directly aimed at improving academic outcomes — the foremost priority for all schools.”
Nationally, the assessment demonstrated that fourth- and eighth-graders are not making the level of progress needed to regain ground lost during the pandemic, although there are some signs of progress.
“Overall, student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance,” NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr said.
“Where there are signs of recovery, they are mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students. Lower-performing students are struggling, especially in reading.”