The Intelligencer
Slow progress is still progress, and data from the 2023-24 Statewide Summative Assessment shows West Virginians have reason to be encouraged. Slowly but surely, student performance is returning to near pre-COVID 19 levels.
West Virginia Department of Education officials said that math and reading scores are inching back, after the devastating hit they took in the 2020-21 school year.
Across all grades for the prior school year, 36% of students tested were proficient in math, up from 35% in the 2022-23 school year and 33% in 2021-22 school year. During the 2020-21 school year, where the first half of the school year included school closing and virtual learning, math proficiency dropped from 39% in the pre-COVID 2018-19 school year to 28%.
English Language Arts scores are following a similar pattern.
Last school year, proficiency was at 45%, up from 44% in 2022-23 and 42% in 2021-22. Pre-COVID ELA proficiency was 46% in 2018-19, dropping to 40% in 2020-21. Science proficiency remained flat at 29% for the 2023-2024 and 2022-23 school years. Science proficiency was 28% for 2020-21 and 2021-22, but 33% in the pre-COVID school year.
What’s nudging along the improvement?
