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?

“This is attributed, in part, to the passing of the Third Grade Success Act during the 2023 state legislative session and the WVDE’s Ready, Read, Write, West Virginia literacy initiative,” the Department of Education said. “The data reflects student proficiency approaching pre-COVID-19 levels, and the WVDE remains engaged with counties, schools, stakeholders and state leaders to support student academic success.”

If teachers and administrators really did implement the particulars of the Third Grade Success Act so effectively in its first year that it produced those kinds of results, that is impressive, indeed. Ready, Read, Write West Virginia has had a little more time to make a difference, and it appears to be doing so. But we must not forget that students are also simply catching up from an unprecedented disruption in their learning, and teachers are helping them realize this improvement while fighting an uphill battle — and attending to many more than simply academic needs for some students. They are to be commended for all they do for our kids.

But they cannot let up in that effort, as our sights must be set ever-higher for our students. To know young people are learning and growing with better performance year after year is to know we all can be better. That is a hopeful thought, indeed.