CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Department of Education reports that students are continuing to improve with assessments.
Results from the 2024-2025 student assessments were presented during Wednesday’s monthly meeting for the state Board of Education, and they showed 48 of the 55 counties improving in math. 26 of those 48 counties met or exceeded annual growth targets from the WVDE.
While math and other numbers improved, state Department of Education Director of Assessment Dr. Vaughn Rhudy says English language arts (ELA) numbers were even better.
“We saw some improvement in every content area across the board with the highest being three percentage point in ELA,” Rhudy said during Wednesday’s meeting.
The numbers from the 2024-2025 academic year come from three different tests, those being the West Virginia General Summative Assessment (Grades 3-8), the SAT School Day for high school juniors, and the West Virginia Alternative Summative Assessment (Grades 3-8 and 11).
According to Rhudy, students are becoming proficient in the key subjects, and there was only one area where the achievement marks dropped.
“Across the board, we saw increases in percent proficient at every grade with the exception of grade 3, where there was a slight drop from last year of one percentage point from 46 to 45,” Rhudy said.
State Superintendent Michelle Blatt and BOE President Paul Hardesty each praised teachers and staff across the state for the continued improvements on Wednesday.
“I applaud your efforts,” Hardesty said. “We’ve got a long way to go, but I do feel like that we are trending in the right direction based on these results.”
Blatt says this success is not by accident.
“Our teachers and our administrators have done a lot of hard work to truly implement and look at what are the basic skills our students need to be successful,” Blatt said.
Blatt also mentioned how the Third Grade Success Act has come into play. The state BOE directed the Department of Education three years ago to focus on the fundamental building blocks of learning.
“The legislature passed the Third Grade Success Act, which piggybacked the year after President Hardesty’s push to get back to the basics and I think that our counties have really put in the effort and work to make that happen,” Blatt said.