House Speaker Roger Hanshaw doesn’t want to stand still on West Virginia’s education performance.
West Virginia’s results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress were well below the national average and amounted to the state’s lowest performance ever.
West Virginia’s rank was right at the bottom of states for the first national standardized assessment of reading and math following the height of the covid-19 pandemic. But West Virginia’s performance was near the bottom of states in years prior to that, too.
“Coronavirus had exactly the impact that so many people were afraid it has had on students for the past two years,” Hanshaw said today, “and it underscores, I hope, to everyone — and certainly to me — the need to make sure we’re going to resource up properly every school in the state to correct the ship of state, so to speak.”
This past legislative session, Hanshaw pushed a bill that would have provided funding for teaching assistants in early-grade classrooms.
That bill was scaled back and scaled back, down to a pilot program with a $12 million estimated cost, in an attempt to make it modest enough to get through the legislative process. It passed the House of Delegates but stalled in the Senate and was never taken up by Senate Finance.
Speaking on MetroNews’ “Talkline” today, Hanshaw said he wants to revisit that bill as part of an emphasis on education policy.
“I will sponsor that bill again. I met with the governor about that bill last week. We knew it was important before, but the data now bear it out,” Hanshaw said.
What does @SpeakerHanshaw think about West Virginia's NAEP test results? Speaker Hanshaw joins @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nm85Y pic.twitter.com/FQGbekQsdJ
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) October 31, 2022
Another bill that passed the House earlier this year would have established a goal of ensuring third grade students are competent in reading and math before moving on to fourth grade.
The bill laid out early warning signs to try to make sure young students are receiving the help they need at school and at home. Teachers for pre-K through grade 3 were to identify students with deficiencies and implement ways to help in a variety of ways throughout the school year. Parents or guardians were to receive regular updates.
There were no specific costs associated with that bill, but it also went to Senate Finance and no farther.
“The two bills from the house last year that didn’t make it through the Senate are priorities of mine this year,” said House Education Chairman Joe Ellington, R-Mercer.
West Virginia’s superintendent of schools, David Roach, said he also is working to shape policies that could help the state’s education performance.
“I think the data serves as a call to action for all of us. I think it’s probably the most important work; it will be, probably what we’re judged against,” he said. “I think we’re at a low point.
“It starts with me, but every superintendent, every principal, every teacher, it’s a wakeup call. I don’t think we have any excuses except to roll up our sleeves and get started.”
Roach described a renewed emphasis on literacy and mathematics skills in both early and secondary grade classrooms. “We can do it,” he said.
What is David Roach's, West Virginia School Superintendent, assessment of West Virginia's NAEP test scores for 4th and 8th graders? He provides his analysis to @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nm85Y pic.twitter.com/s9rILu8WPD
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) October 31, 2022
Nationally, the test was administered to 446,700 students at 10,970 schools in all states at the beginning of the calendar year. It is scored on a scale of 0 to 500.
In mathematics, West Virginia public school fourth graders had an average score of 226, only better among states than New Mexico. In reading, the other big area assessed, West Virginia fourth graders scored an average 205, only better than New Mexico and Alaska.
West Virginia public school eighth graders scored 260 on average in math, only better than New Mexico. The West Virginia eighth graders scored a 249 in reading, again only better than New Mexico.
“I think we expected it this time, coming off the pandemic,” David Price, the superintendent of schools in Raleigh County, said today on “Radio Roundtable” on WJLS-AM.
“Students weren’t in school every day, and I think this sends the message of how important it is for our students to be in school.”
Price noted that some of the states at the bottom of the rankings share other socioeconomic conditions such as high levels of poverty. “So those are things we have to take into consideration as well, not as excuses. We know those challenges exist in West Virginia,” Price said.