CHARLESTON — Members of the West Virginia Board of Education were pleased to see the latest statewide math and English Language Arts results showing continued improvement in the state’s 55-county public school system.

The state Board of Education received a report Wednesday morning during its monthly meeting in Charleston detailing the results of the West Virginia Statewide Summative Assessment Results for the 2024-25 school year.

The Statewide Summative Assessment looks at proficiency in math, English Language Arts (ELA) and science. The results consist of the General Summative Assessment for grades three through eight, the SAT School Day Test for high school juniors and the Alternative Summative Assessment for grades three through eight and grade 11.

There was a 95% participation rate among the grades tested for a second year in a row. There was no testing during the 2019-2020 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down schools in spring 2020.

According to the overall results calculated across all grades for the prior school year, 38% of students tested were proficient in math, up from 36% in the 2023-24 school year and 35% in 2022-23 school year. By comparison, math proficiency dropped from 39% in the pre-COVID 2018-19 school year to 28% during the 2020-21 school year, where the first half of the school year was subject to school closings and virtual learning during spikes of COVID-19 infections. Math proficiency during 2021-22 rose to 33%.

ELA proficiency last school year was at 48%, up from 45% in 2023-24 and 44% in 2022-23. Pre-COVID ELA proficiency was 46% in 2018-19, dropping to 40% in 2020-21, but rising to 42% in 2021-22.

Science proficiency rose slightly to 30% last school year, up from 29% for the 2023-24 and 2022-23 school years. Science proficiency was 28% for 2020-21 and 2021-22, but 33% in the pre-COVID school year.

According to State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt, 48 out of 55 counties improved in math between last school year and the 2023-24 school year, with 26 of those counties meeting or exceeding growth targets that were set through the U.S. Department of Education’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). In ELA, 52 out of 55 counties improved between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school year, with 30 counties exceeding growth targets.

“We are definitely trending in the right direction,” Blatt said. “We know it is a process of three-to-five years and we’re seeing those gains. One of the things that we know about school improvement and increasing percentages as we look at these summative assessments is you have to stay the course. You have to continue to implement and do the programs.”

Blatt and state Board of Education President Paul Hardesty gave credit to the Third Grade Success Act and a renewed focus on phonics for helping counties improve their math and ELA proficiency.

The Third Grade Success Act, passed by the Legislature in 2023, required the state Board of Education to develop screeners and benchmark assessments in ELA and math for students in kindergarten through third grade, as well as a multi-tiered system of support for students exhibiting substantial reading or math deficiencies to ensure students are proficient before moving past the third grade. The bill also allowed for teacher aides and interventionists in early elementary classrooms up to third grade.

“I want to thank our board for their direction and then I also want to thank our counties for the hard work they’ve invested, and the Legislature for the funding that they have put in to ensure not only that we have the instructional aids in grades K-3 but also the investment that went into the letters training and the work that we’re doing with our teachers across the state,” Blatt said.

At the end of 2022 during Hardesty’s first tenure as state board president, the Department of Education launched Ready, Read, Write West Virginia. The program focuses on the science of reading and phonics education, with resources for families, school administrators and teachers. According to the department, new math standards were rolled out to schools on July 1. The department is also introducing its new “Unite with Numeracy” program to improve math proficiency.

“Three years ago when I first became president of the board for the first time, I asked the department to take a hard look at getting back to the basics, that being reading and math,” said Hardesty, who began his second tenure as state board president in July. “I think you’ve all done that and I applaud your efforts for that. We’ve got a long way to go, but I do feel like we are trending in the right direction based on these results.”

Looking at third grade scores, ELA proficiency slipped slightly between the previous school year (45%) and school year 2023-24 (46%). But by fourth grade, the numbers were up, from 47% in the 2023-24 school year to 50% in the 2024-25 school year. Math proficiency in third grade remained consistent between 2023-24 and 2024-25 at 53%, but fourth grade math proficiency improved, from 48% in 2023-24 to 50% to 2024-25.