Data maintained by the West Virginia Board of Education suggests that the Webster County High School needs serious academic improvements compared to the County's other schools.
For the past five school years (from 2008 to 2012), the County's high school has met the Adequate Yearly Progress ("AYP") standards only once, and that was back in 2008. Only Hacker Valley Elementary has met AYP all five of the past school years. Diana Elementary and Glade Elementary have met AYP four of the five years, with both schools missing the standards in 2009.Webster Springs Elementary and Glade Middle have met AYP only two of the past five years, with neither school meeting the standards the past two school years.
To meet the AYP standards, schools must achieve West Virginia Department of Education targets on the WV state assessment, the Westest 2, in Reading, Language Arts, and Mathematics. To meet these targets, a designated percentage of students must score at the proficiency level designated. To meet targets, 95% of students must take each assessment. In addition, schools must meet targets for graduation rate and attendance. All of these standards must be met by all students, measured as a whole, and by each subgroup. If just one subgroup misses just one target, the entire school does not make AYP. Only subgroups larger than 50 students count for AYP.
The information contained in this article can be accessed at this link:
With these statistics, it needs to be noted that a larger school has a larger population and therefore falls underneath more subgroups. If you have a certain amount of students in a certain subgroup then that group counts in your AYP. Some of the schools listed above only missed AYP because of one of these subgroups. Smaller schools such as Diana and Hacker Valley do not have the larger population to fill up the subgroups to consider in their AYP. I would like to see the data for each of these school broken down into the different categories and which schools missed just because a subgroup (like special education students) filled up.
ReplyDeleteTo answer the above posted comment about the subgroup breakdown, please click on the link included at the end of the article, then click on any one of the individual Webster County schools, and you will be provided more details about AYP for each school.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see the same (subgroups -vs- AYP). Schools, teachers, and the entire educational process are SO focused on "the test" that our "great" government has forced upon them. There is no doubt in my mind that EVERY child CAN learn.....however, not all children learn at the same speed. No one seems to EVER focus on the positive issues, just the negatives that they pick at, much like chickens pick (peck) a sore until it bleeds. Until such a time that the ALL HOLY TEST reflects on a student's GPA, they will not take "the test" seriously. They know it doesn't count for anything that they are interested in, so why bother?
ReplyDeleteThey should use what they do here in Ohio its called study island it's a internet program that all kids use and it can be set to help with WV testing they have it for K-12 it seems to work and the kids that don't have a computer at home they have computer labs at school.
ReplyDeleteSpecial needs students are also made to take this test even though some may not be able to read at grade level. That contributes t bringing scores down, not to mention the students who go through the test and mark anything. Students have been known to mark in designs or nothing at all.
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