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Admitting We Have a Problem

Not long after Gov. Jim Justice took office, he asked the West Virginia Department of Education to rethink its method of reporting the quality of public schools. The A-F grading system in place then stereotyped some schools as failures, he said.

So a new “Balanced Scorecard” report was put in place. It color codes schools on various criteria. Green is very good, exceeding state standards. Blue meets them, while yellow does so partially. Red does not meet the state’s own standards — developed, let it be noted, by professional educators.

In mathematics education, every one of the 11 public high schools in the Northern Panhandle was rated in the red category. One, Valley High in Wetzel County, was ranked as among the five worst in the state in terms of English and language arts.

There is more. Suffice it to say that at every level — elementary, middle and high school — public education in our six counties shows large numbers of red ratings.

They are not alone. Of the 116 public high schools in the Mountain State, 102 were rated red in math. Just one — one! — George Washington High in Kanawha County, earned even the blue level.

It may seem to some that for many years, the public education hierarchy’s answer to questions about quality in West Virginia schools has been to adopt new standardized tests, new curriculum rules, new evaluation systems.

What have we to show for that?

Again, think about this: Measures of school achievement used for many years have been developed not by critics of public education, but by professionals in the field. They have been put in place by the very people we pay to improve the quality of our schools.

Use what rating system you will. Whether it be education bureaucrat jargon undecipherable by the public, A-F letter grades or color coding, the result always seems to be the same.

Not all schools in our state are the pedagogic train wrecks the ratings may imply. Some are quite good in many respects.

But many are not where we need them to be. And some are richly deserving of the F grades the governor wanted to avoid.

The reasons are complex. There is plenty of blame to go around. Some of it rests with parents, even entire communities. Many dedicated, good teachers labor in environments where excellence is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

Is it not time for us to admit we have a problem, find out exactly what it is, and do something about it?

Or will we just change how we define it — again?

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