CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) has been taking steps to ensure a smooth transition for counties since HB2711 dissolves the Regional Education Service Agencies (RESA) on June 30, 2018. RESAs will remain under the control of the West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) until the time of their closure or until an Educational Service Cooperative (ESC) is formed.
In order to replace the services provided by the RESAs, counties may form and control ESCs. The change provides local control to county superintendents and boards of education to choose to create cooperatives within their region. The decision to create a cooperative to provide services lies solely with the county boards of education.
To ensure the success of the RESA transition included within HB2711, Governor Jim Justice requested the WVBE create a committee to oversee the transition of RESAs to ESCs. The WVBE created a RESA Transition Committee to ensure the necessary support needed by the counties to become cooperatives. The committee, which meets regularly, is made up of state and county education personnel and is actively addressing the concerns of counties to ease the transition process. David Perry, Vice President of the WVBE, was selected to chair the committee due to his past experience and knowledge in school administration and his awareness of RESA services.
The WVBE has worked to ensure there will be no interruption of services during the transition. Various services have been historically coordinated through RESAs and the WVBE RESA transition committee is working to identify how those services will continue to be provided. Those services range from school bus driver training, technology support, teacher alternative certification, adult basic education and public service training. Once formed, ESCs will retain the same cooperative buying authority utilized by RESAs.
“Throughout the transition, we have listened to the concerns of our counties and have brought together the best resources available to ensure supports are in place to assist with the formation of Educational Service Cooperatives,” Perry said. “ESCs will give counties full local control of the programs administered by the ESCs and allow them to create a cooperative that is tailor-made for their needs.”
The next meeting of the RESA Transition Committee is scheduled for October 11, 2017. At the meeting, the committee will be presented with ESC templates that will be developed and presented by the West Virginia School Board Association.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia students showed improvement in math in six of the seven grade levels assessed on the 2017 statewide summative assessments, and half of the students in grade 11 were proficient in English language arts (ELA), according to results released today at the West Virginia State Board of Education meeting.
Results from both the 2017 West Virginia General Summative Assessment and the West Virginia Alternate Summative Assessment were combined to obtain the final assessment results released today. About 150,000 students took the West Virginia General Summative Assessment, while about 2,200 students who have significant cognitive disabilities took the alternate assessment.
“I am pleased to see improvements within mathematics, but recognize we still have work to do to ensure our students are mastering the skills necessary at each grade level,” said West Virginia Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Steven Paine. “I am confident we will continue to see improvements as our standards are fully implemented and new math instructional materials are adopted.”
Results were presented for math and ELA in grades 3-8 and grade 11. The West Virginia State Board of Education voted not to test students in math and ELA in grades 9 and 10 earlier this year.
Math scores improved in grades 4-8 and 11, but dropped 1 percentage point, from 49 percent to 48 percent, in grade 3; however, that grade still had the highest percent proficient in math across all the grade levels. The biggest gain in math occurred in grade 4 where 43 percent of students were proficient in 2017 compared to 40 percent in 2016.
Although ELA did not see as many gains as math, the percent proficient in ELA was still greater than the percent proficient in math in most grades. ELA proficiency ranged from a low of 45 percent in in grades 3, 6 and 8 to a high of 50 percent in grade 11. The percent proficient in grade 11 increased 1 percentage point from last year’s 49 percent, but ELA scores dipped slightly in grades 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8; the percentage proficient in grade 8 stayed the same as last year at 48 percent.
In science, the percent proficient in grade 10 increased from 36 percent last year to 39 percent this year, while 37 percent of students were proficient in grade 5 and 38 percent in grade 8. In previous years, the science test was administered in grades 4, 6 and 10.
Spring 2017 was the third and final administration of the Smarter Balanced assessment. In response to legislation passed in 2017, the WVDE has issued two request for proposals to identify new assessments that will be used during the 2017-18 school year. One assessment will be selected for grades 3-8 and another assessment, which must be a college-entrance exam, will be selected for grade 11. The WVDE plans to announce the new statewide assessments by September 1.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – To further enhance the state’s Comprehensive Third Grade Literacy Initiative, the West Virginia Department of Education’s (WVDE) Office of Early Learning will grant more than $350,000 to state and local partners to expand local-level support for the WV Leaders of Literacy: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. There were three levels of awards: up to $5,000, up to $25,000, and up to $50,000, with a total distribution of more than $350,000.
The following partners will receive funding as a result of the Campaign Partner Grants competition:
Read Aloud West Virginia
Save the Children
West Virginia Imagination Library
Shepherd University
Western Counties Regional Library System (to benefit the “Facing Hunger” food banks, as well as 31 public libraries in Mason, Putnam, Cabell, Wayne, Mingo, Logan, & Lincoln counties)
Wirt County Prevention Coalition
Tucker County Family Resource Network (to benefit Tucker, Randolph, & Barbour Co. public libraries)
Weirton Bread Basket Bob Burdette Center & East End Family Resource Network (Kanawha Co.)
Partners will receive funding in the coming weeks to be used for school year 2017-18.
“Research shows the importance of ensuring all students read on grade-level by the end of the third grade in order to increase the likelihood of later achievement in school and in life,” said Dr. Steven Paine, West Virginia Superintendent of Schools.
“With continued support from the West Virginia Governor’s office, the West Virginia Legislature and the State Board of Education, the Department’s efforts to support early literacy initiatives and programs at the local level are in full swing in all 55 West Virginia counties. The Campaign Partner Grants Competition serves as an additional avenue through which collaboration and services can be provided to benefit the children and families of West Virginia as we collectively strive to close the critical third-grade literacy achievement gap.”
Grant proposals had to support data-driven programs, initiatives or efforts applicable to counties’ identified needs and goals associated with their approved Early Literacy Action Plans submitted to the WVDE Office of Early Learning. Each selected grant proposal was directly connected to one or more components of the WV Leaders of Literacy: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, including:
school readiness, attendance, extended learning opportunities, and/or high-quality classroom instruction.
The WV Leaders of Literacy: Campaign for Grade-Level Reading began as a result of legislation passed in 2014, which led to the passage of State Board of Education policy 2512 that focuses on a transformative system of support for early literacy, ages birth through third grade. The campaign serves as West Virginia’s initiative to close the literacy achievement gap by the end of the third grade year.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Due to overwhelming interest, the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) announced the addition of four more regional stakeholder meetings to discuss the state’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan. Meetings have already been held in Lewis County and Kanawha County, with an additional meeting scheduled for Monday, July 10th at 5:30 p.m. at Spring Mills High School in Berkeley County. The meetings will include a brief informational session and an open question and answer session. All stakeholder meetings are open to the public. The added events will take place at the following dates and times:
July 17, 5:30 p.m. John Marshall High School 1300 Wheeling Ave Glen Dale, WV 25404 July 20, 5:30 p.m. East Fairmont High School 1993 Airport Road Fairmont, WV 26554 July 26, 5:30 p.m. Cabell Midland 2300 US 60 Ona, WV 25545 July 27, 5:30 p.m. Eastern Greenbrier Middle School 403 Knight Drive Ronceverte, WV 24970
ESSA was signed into law in December 2015, replacing the No Child Left Behind Act. The federal legislation represents a shift from broad federal oversight to greater flexibility of primary and secondary education at the state and local levels. ESSA requires all states to develop plans that address standards, assessments, accountability and support for struggling schools. The WVDE will post the full state plan online in early August for a 30-day public comment period prior to the submission of the final plan on September 18, 2017.
By: Michelle Croft and Richard Lee ACT Research and Policy
Despite (or because of) the federal requirement that all students in certain grades participate in statewide achievement testing, stories of parents opting their student out of the testing gained national attention in the media in the spring of 2015. Ultimately, twelve states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin—received a notice from the U.S. Department of Education that they needed to create a plan to reduce opt-outs due to low participation rates.
When statewide testing came in spring 2016, there were more stories of opt-outs, and information about districts failing to meet participation requirements will follow in the coming months.3 Early reports from New York indicate that 21% of students in grades 3–8 opted out in 2016, which was slightly more than the prior year. (See attached PDF below for reference information.)
Participation Rate Requirements
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (both the No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds authorizations) requires that all students annually participate in statewide achievement testing in mathematics and English in grades 3–8 and high school as well as science in certain grade spans. Ninety-five percent of students at the state, district, and school level must participate; otherwise there is a range of consequences.
Under the No Child Left Behind authorization, the school would automatically fail to meet Adequate Yearly Progress if the school—or subgroups of students within the school—did not meet the participation rate requirement. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides states with greater flexibility to determine how to incorporate the participation rate into the state’s accountability system. However, in proposed regulations, the state will need to take certain actions such as lowering the school’s rating in the state’s accountability system or identifying the school for targeted support or improvement, if all students or one or more student subgroups do not meet the 95% participation rate.
Michelle Croft is a principal research associate in Public Affairs at ACT. Richard Lee is a senior analyst in Public Affairs at ACT.
This report highlights significant investments made by both Republican and Democratic policymakers in state-funded pre-k programs for the fourth year in a row. In the 2015-16 budget year, 32 states and the District of Columbia raised funding levels of pre-k programs. This increased support for preschool funding came from both sides of the aisle–22 states with Republican governors and 10 states with Democratic governors, plus the District of Columbia.
In contrast, only five states with Republican governors and three states with Democratic governors decreased their pre-k funding.
Overall, state funding of pre-k programs across the 50 states and the District of Columbia increased by nearly $755 million, or 12 percent over 2014-15. While this progress is promising, there is still work to be done to set children on the path to academic success early in life. Still, less than half of preschool-aged students have access to pre-k programs.
Increasing the number of students in high-quality preschool programs is broadly viewed as a way to set young learners on a path to a secure economic future and stable workforce. This report includes several state examples and an overview of the pre-k programs they have in place. Data tables on total state pre-K funding and state pre-kindergarten funding by program are appended. [Megan Carolan contributed to this publication.]
Education Commission of the States. ECS Distribution Center, 700 Broadway Suite 1200, Denver, CO 80203-3460. Tel: 303-299-3692; Fax: 303-296-8332; e-mail: ecs@ecs.org; Web site: http://www.ecs.org
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia’s Universal Pre-K Program once again ranks among the top in the nation, according to the 2016 Yearbook released today by the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).
The State of Preschool Yearbook is the only national report on state-funded preschool programs with detailed information on enrollment, funding, teacher qualifications, and other policies related to quality. Despite a slight decrease in preschool funding, West Virginia continues to rank among the top states, maintaining quality standards and broad access. In fact, West Virginia was one of only five states that met all 10 of NIEER’s quality benchmarks.
“Research has shown again and again that high-quality early childhood education can prepare children for greater success in elementary school and beyond,” said West Virginia Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Steven Paine. “Maintaining quality standards for Pre-K learning throughout the Mountain State ensures that all children – no matter the socioeconomic background – are given the start they need to succeed.”
The West Virginia Universal Pre-K Program boasts a 76 percent participation rate based on 4-year-olds who go on to attend the state’s kindergarten program as 5-year-olds. West Virginia Universal Pre-K enrolled more than 16,000 children, which census data notes is 66 percent of 4-year olds and 11 percent of 3-year-olds in the state. Nationwide, state-funded preschool program enrollment reached an all-time high, serving nearly 1.5 million children, 32 percent of 4-year-olds and five percent of 3-year-olds.
“The success of our early learning programs is reflective of the collaboration with the Governor’s Office, state agencies like the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), and the legislature, all of whom see the impact quality early learning programs have on children,” said West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) president, Tom Campbell. “We are constantly striving to maintain the highest-quality early learning programs to give West Virginia’s youngest students the best start possible.”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Board of Education will participate in an exchange of ideas and experiences with members of the Kentucky and Ohio Boards of Education on Tuesday, May 23, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. at Stonewall Resort, 940 Resort Drive, Roanoke, West Virginia. This event is hosted and sponsored by the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center.
AGENDA
WEST VIRGINIA BOARD OF EDUCATION
Stonewall Resort
940 Resort Drive
Roanoke, West Virginia
May 23, 2017 – 9:00 a.m.
NOTICE: This event is hosted and sponsored by the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center for members of the West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky Boards of Education.
I. Welcome – Pledge of Allegiance – Introductions – Call to Order
Thomas W. Campbell
II. Approval of Agenda – (Action)
AGENDA
APPALACHIA REGIONAL COMPREHENSIVE CENTER
State Boards of Education Ideas Exchange
9:00 – 9:10 a.m. Welcome/Overview
9:10 – 10:30 Session I
Assessment/Accountability
Finance Issues
10:30 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – Noon Session 2
Building Bridges: Working with and Strengthening Relations with Governor, Legislature, and State Education Agencies State ESSA Activities
Noon – 1:00 p.m. Lunch (Group Discussion with Report Out After)
1:00 – 2:30 Session 3
Department Organization (Staff Size, Allocation, Services Provided, Delivery Models) Consolidation and Regional Delivery Versus Community School Model
2:30 Event Concludes
AGENDA
WEST VIRGINIA BOARD OF EDUCATION
III. Future Meetings – (Information)
The next regular meeting of the WVBE will be held June 14, 2017, in Charleston, West Virginia. The meeting will continue on June 15, 2017, if the agenda is not completed on June 14, 2017.
Dr. Tony Marchese of ICF interviews Dr. Caitlin Howley and Dr. Jobi Lawrence of the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center to establish a basic understanding of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This is the first of a three-part series based upon the following objectives:
1. Inform citizens in region about federal education law
2. Explore how the new law might affect states, local districts and schools
3. Provide information about how to provide input to the law as a public education stakeholder
Overview of Programs in Series
Program One: Introduce public to how each state in the Appalachian Region is transitioning to the new law
Program Two: Highlight thoughtful approaches to ESSA planning
Program Three: Examine challenges related to planning for ESSA implementation
Caitlin Howley directs the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center, which provides technical assistance to state education agencies in four states. She also conducts research and evaluation of school, college, and professional development programs across the Appalachian region. Previously, Howley was Associate Director of the ARCC, provided evaluation for several Comprehensive Centers, and served as a Research and Evaluation Specialist with the Appalachia Regional Education Laboratory.
Jobi Lawrence serves as a consultant of the ARCC as well as the Title III Director in a State Education Agency. Over the course of her career in education, Lawrence has served as an ESL and Bilingual Co-Teacher, a faculty member in higher education and an administrator in higher education and a state government agency.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Board of Education will meet to conduct routine business on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. in Capitol Building 6, Room 353 (Board Conference Room), 1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East, Charleston, West Virginia. The meeting will continue on Thursday, March 9, 2017, at 9:00 a.m., in Capitol Building 6, Room 353 (Board Conference Room), 1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East, Charleston, West Virginia, if the agenda is not completed on March 8, 2017. The amended meeting agenda may be accessed at http://wvde.state.wv.us/minutes/current/AGENDA1.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) has been taking steps to ensure a smooth transition for counties since HB2711 dissolves the Regional Education Service Agencies (RESA) on June 30, 2018. RESAs will remain under the control of the West Virginia Board of Education (WVBE) until the time of their closure or until an Educational Service Cooperative (ESC) is formed.
