West Virginia lawmakers spent considerable time this past session discussing public education. Bills pertaining to weakening vaccination requirements, shifting oversight for the West Virginia Board of Education to the Legislature, mapping all schools to improve safety and more found their way to committee agendas.

But no where in that mix was discussion on how to improve student achievement. That was a missed opportunity.

Consider the updated 2024 NAEP scores presented earlier this year by the Urban Institute, which uses demographic information such as “gender, age, race or ethnicity, receipt of free and reduced-price lunch, special education status” and more to realign the scores.

The adjustments didn’t help the state’s results.

The NAEP test selects random fourth- and eighth-grade students in each state in reading and math. The scores are presented as part of what’s known as The Nation’s Report Card.

Eight-graders in West Virginia, according to Urban Institute’s study, were last in both reading and math. And fourth-graders here out-performed eight states in reading and only five in math.

That’s simply not good enough.

Yes, work is being done to fix this problem, but that has to start with serious discussions among lawmakers about, quite simply, getting out of the way and letting teachers teach. Placing education rule-making oversight with the Legislature will not fix this problem. Focusing, instead, on moving the state forward and getting out of the way will, at the very least, be the right start.