By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — More than half of West Virginia’s county school systems are struggling to meet specific program requirements, and 49 counties are on watch for multiple issues including chronic absenteeism according to a report given to the state Board of Education during its regular monthly meeting Wednesday.
According to report issued by the West Virginia Department of Education, 25 counties met all requirements for county operational effectiveness indicators of efficiency, leaving 30 counties that either didn’t meet one or more requirements.
Alexandra Criner, director of the Office of Accountability, told board members Wednesday that out of the 25 counties who met requirements, 16 had done so for two years in a row.
The state’s accountability system has two parts: the county operational effectiveness indicators of efficiency, and indicators of student performance and success based on the annual West Virginia Balanced Scorecard.
County operational effectiveness looks at 11 indicators in a county, including career and technical education, child nutrition, the effectiveness of county boards of education, facilities, federal programs, finance, personnel, special education, state-required data collections, transportation, and universal pre-Kindergarten readiness.
