photo by: Derek Redd

Walt Saunders, assessment and federal programs director for Ohio County Schools, goes over this year’s math assessment scores at this week’s Ohio County Board of Education meeting.

WHEELING — While acknowledging there remains plenty of room for improvement, officials with Ohio County Schools showed the Board of Education this week that test scores throughout the districts are reaching levels not seen in years.

Walt Saunders, the district’s assessment and federal programs director, and JoJo Shay, the district’s innovation director, presented the latest assessment scores from Ohio County. Students in third through eighth grades as well as 11th grade are tested annually in English/language arts and math. Students in fifth, eighth and 11th grades are tested annually in science.

Shay and Saunders’ presentation focused on ELA and math, and the two told board members that Ohio County’s scores were ranked among the best in West Virginia. The county was second overall in ELA and fourth in math based on the percentage of students reaching proficiency in the subject..

Furthermore, they said, specific grades of students placed in the top five in the state in both ELA and math. In ELA, the county’s third-graders (No. 2), fourth-graders (No. 2), fifth-graders (No. 3), eighth-graders (No. 3) and 11th-graders (No. 4) all finished in the top five. In math, those in third (No. 2), fourth (No. 1), fifth (No. 1), eighth (No. 4) and 11th (No. 3) grades were in the top five.

Shay and Saunders also pointed out the leaps made in some grades. Ohio County’s eighth graders went from 22nd in the state in math last year to fourth this year, while 11th graders went from No. 12 to No. 3. In ELA, the eighth-graders jumped from 21st to third in the state, while the 11th graders moved from 14th to fourth.

Most of the middle school math rankings – seventh graders in Ohio County ranked eighth statewide – were particularly encouraging, as they were much higher than the scores recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020-21. The effects of the pandemic led the state to postpone assessments for the 2019-20 school year, and when they resumed they had plummeted from pre-COVID levels.

There was a significant turnaround this year. For instance, eighth graders earned math proficiency at a 29% rate last year. This year 42.9% were proficient, a jump of nearly 14 points.

“Three years ago, we stood up here and told you about a crisis we were having in middle school math,” Saunders said. “We put some resources, time and effort into it, and we’re starting to see some rewards from that.”

There were still some areas of concern, especially in math, as board president David Croft was about to inquire before Saunders mentioned it. The drop in proficiency between fifth and sixth grades and eighth and 11th grades in math were large. Ohio County fifth graders were proficient in math at a 60.4% clip. That number fell to 37.1% in sixth grade. Likewise, 42.9% of Ohio County’s eighth graders earned proficiency in math, but that number fell to 27.7% in 11th grade.

Saunders said part of the culprit in the drop between fifth and sixth grades could be the new environment for the students.

“You’re the king of the hill in fifth grade, right?” he said. “You’ve been at that school for a long time. You’re comfortable. Everything’s great. You have maybe one teacher, depending if they’re departmentalized, you might have two teachers. Then you go to sixth grade. You’re low rung on the ladder, right? You got all kinds of things going on in sixth grade. Now you have eight teachers. Bells ring. You’re going from one class to the next. Big changes, right? Let alone just a maturity.

“But this is definitely an area that we’re working on to address,” he continued, “because that’s … too big of a drop, and we’re trying to close that gap.”

Saunders said district teachers already have been working on boosting scores. Shay held two summer seminars with separate elementary, middle school and high school components in both math and ELA.

“We have to wait to report (the scores) to you because they’re embargoed,” Saunders said. “But we don’t wait to take action on them. We take action on them as soon as the test is over.”

Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kim Miller said educators from across the county took advantage of those seminars.

“We had teachers from every school present,” she said, “so it speaks volumes when these teachers are giving up their summer and they’re coming in already working, diving through the data so that we have a real, solid understanding of where to start the school year.”