Central Elementary School students Jackie Rodgers, left, and Kinley Turkley, right, demonstrate the Vex Go Robotics Design Systems during a Marshall County Schools Local School Improvement Council showcase event in October 2024. (File Photo)

WHEELING — Ohio and Marshall counties were named by the Education Recovery Scorecard as two counties that were able to bounce back academically after the COVID-19 pandemic and surpass their mean achievement for 2019 student math levels.

The Education Recovery Scorecard is a collaboration between the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University and faculty at Dartmouth College. The report seeks to provide a picture of academic recovery in math or reading achievement data across 43 states.

Ohio and Marshall are two of just four West Virginia counties whose mean achievement for students surpassed 2019 levels in math, according to scorecard data. They join Raleigh and Putnam counties.

Ohio and Marshall counties’ academic recovery in math assessment scores was measured through each county’s math state assessment scores and trends in scores in grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 national average of math assessment scores.

For Ohio County in 2024, the average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 national average was 0.75. In comparison, Ohio County’s average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 National Average was -0.27 in 2019.

Ohio County Schools Superintendent Kim Miller attributed the improvement partly to the implementation of tiered instruction in schools. Tiered instruction involves students being separated into smaller learning groups based on what level of instruction they require and skills they need to learn.

“A large group would be tier one, and then tier two would be a group of four to eight kids who need to work on a certain skill,” Miller said. “Tier three is usually more one-on-one instruction. Tiered instruction gives students up to three levels of instruction to help them cover skills or deficient areas.”

Another factor Miller identified that helped improve math assessment scores after COVID-19 was “quality professional learning opportunities” for teachers. She said about 40 teachers in the county are part of a cohort and are being trained using LETRS, a professional learning course that employs a structured literacy approach based in the science of reading with components like syntax, semantics and syllables.

“We have a group of teachers that are being trained on LETRS for our elementary students, monitoring assessment with benchmarks at the beginning of the year, middle of the year, end of the year and sustained assessment throughout,” Miller said.

Miller noted that taking advantage of virtual learning opportunities, including utilizing Khan Academy at the high school level, has provided students with further academic support.

“I think virtual learning is much better now than we ever thought it could be,” Miller said. “We know students learn the best with a real teacher, but we can still use that technology piece to support what’s happening in the classroom. It all comes back to the quality of our teachers who work with our kids every day, and it takes everybody from the bus driver that first greets the kids in the morning to the teacher that says ‘goodbye’ to them at the end of the day.”

For Marshall County in 2024, the average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 National Average was -1.01. In comparison, Marshall County’s average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 National Average was -1.07 in 2019.

Marshall County Schools Superintendent Shelby Haines attributed the improvement in part to monitoring students’ progress on individual levels. She noted that the county spent a “significant amount” of its COVID-19 federal funding on providing tutoring, interventionists and after-school support for students of all grades.

“I think that [spending COVID-19 funding on individual student support] helped extend the learning environment into before and after school,” Haines added. “Breaking down the class size and the intervention groups with extra certified teachers in the classrooms also helps.”

Haines said they have also focused on making sure students are in school. She said each school has an attendance team that looks at student attendance data, meets with parents and creates intervention programs for chronically absent students.

The county has also hired former state parole officer Mike Rose in 2023 to serve as a Truancy Diversion Specialist for the school system. Students are referred to Rose to help them get back on track attendance-wise before they are referred to the court system for attendance issues.

For Brooke County in 2024, the average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 National Average was -0.83. In comparison, Brooke County’s average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 National Average was -1.33 in 2019.

For Tyler County in 2024, the average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 National Average was -0.29 for 2024. In comparison, Tyler County’s average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 National Average was -0.27 in 2019.

For Wetzel County in 2024, the average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 National Average was -1.41 for 2024. In comparison, Wetzel County’s average math scores and trends in scores for grade levels third through eighth relative to the 2019 National Average was -0.92 in 2019.

Overall, West Virginia ranked 22nd in math and and 42nd in reading in terms of recovery from 2019-24, yet from 2022-24, the recovery was much more successful. In that span, West Virginia ranked sixth in math and 11th in reading.