CHARLESTON, W.Va. –West Virginia Department of Education Legislative and Policy Officer Drew McClanahan told lawmakers Tuesday that the Third Grade Success Act has proven effective three years after its passage.
The act, which was passed in 2023, aims to ensure students are reading on grade level and proficient in basic math by the end of third grade. The law applies to students in kindergarten through third grade.
McClanahan said that since 2025, the department has worked to ensure progress in implementing the act.
“The department of ed has made strong progress in implementing House Bill 3035, through initiatives centered around the science of reading, LETRS, professional learning, early childhood development, writing instruction, literacy and numeracy support,” he told the Oversight Commission on Education Accountability. “The department continues to ensure every child builds solid reading and math foundations by third grade.”
McClanahan said the department partnered with the June Harless Center and Mountain State Education Services to launch the Tiered Instructional Support Initiative to strengthen learning across all regions.
He said the initiative has been implemented in classrooms.
“We have gotten all the way into classrooms with coaching models, so not only getting it at the district level or the school level but also in the classroom level, with some individual coaching supports,” McClanahan said.
He said that since the passage of the act, the state has seen significant improvement in reading and math.
The improvement was noted in a study conducted by Harvard and Stanford.
“Harvard and Stanford did a study where they saw West Virginia rose 42nd to 11th nationally in reading growth and from 22nd to 6th nationally in numeracy growth from 2022 to 2024,” McClanahan said.
He said the state has also seen a significant decline in the number of students needing help with reading and math since implementation.
“The beginning of year data from 2023 to 2025 shows an overall decline in the number of third grade students needing targeted interventions, indicating more students are meeting the beginning of the year cut scores in literacy and numeracy across these four grades,” McClanahan said.