West Virginia’s math and reading scores are some of the lowest in the nation, but data released by the U.S. Department of Education Monday shows academic decline across the country.
West Virginia’s math and reading scores are some of the lowest in the nation, but data released by the U.S. Department of Education Monday shows academic decline across the country.
West Virginia’s scores fell across the board on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the first nationwide measurement of learning since the pandemic.
The assessment, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, continually assesses what students in the United States know, particularly reading and math in the 4th and 8th grades.
In reading, the state’s average 4th grade score was 11 points below the national average, while the 8th grade average was 10 points below. These were the third and second lowest reading score averages in the nation, respectively.
In mathematics, West Virginia’s 4th grade scores were 9 points below the national average, while 8th grade scores were 13 points below, the country’s sixth and fourth lowest averages, respectively.
In all four assessments, West Virginia was at least six points below its own average on the 2019 NAEP.
Ebony Walton, a statistician and analyst with the National Center for Education Statistics, said one of the biggest factors for student outcomes during the pandemic was access to resources.
“What we saw was, particularly for lower performing students, they had a hard time accessing materials online, they had a hard time having a computer available to them at all times, they even had some difficulty having access to a teacher every day compared to their higher performing peers,” she said.
Walton stressed that declines in educational outcomes are not unique to West Virginia and will require a broad response.
“There’s so much that’s happening underneath that average that’s worth investigating,” she said. “I want to encourage everyone to keep moving forward so hopefully your communities can build and not just get to where they were before the pandemic but move beyond that.”
The program is organized through Gov. Jim Justice’s office, the West Virginia Department of Education and the nonprofit Communities in Schools. Therapy dogs provide comfort to those affected by certain psychological conditions like depression and anxiety.
Therapy dogs are coming to seven more West Virginia schools as part of the state’s “Friends With Paws” program.
Schools included are:
Pineville Elementary School in Wyoming County
Moorefield Elementary School in Hardy County
Spring Mills High School in Berkeley County
Wayne Elementary School in Wayne County
Lenore Elementary School in Mingo County
Greenbrier East High School in Greenbrier County
Green Bank Elementary-Middle School in Pocahontas County
The program is organized through Gov. Jim Justice’s office, the West Virginia Department of Education and the nonprofit Communities in Schools. Therapy dogs provide comfort to those affected by certain psychological conditions like depression and anxiety. First Lady Cathy Justice champions the program. “I think it will be so beneficial to the kids and just make them just want to come to school every day,” she said Thursday during a briefing. “And that’s what we want to do: make them feel good about themselves, come to school every day and just know that they’ll be such a big part in their life.”
The program began last March as a way to provide comfort to at-risk students, with the original goal to have 10 therapy dog placements by the end of the year. Of that number, three dogs were placed earlier this year at Welch Elementary School, Lewis County High School and Buckhannon Academy Elementary School.
“Friends With Paws” also plans to place ten more dogs in schools next year.
Shepherd University’s Upward Bound program will continue with new federal funding from a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Shepherd University’s Upward Bound program will continue with new federal funding from a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
This is one of ten such programs across West Virginia that helps income eligible high school students gain the academic skills to prepare for a college education.
“I think the program is important because there is a need for it,” said Cynthia Copney, director of the university’s TRIO programs. “In the state of West Virginia, we provide the community that the high schools are in with an educated workforce. We believe education is the way out of poverty and to get to where we want to be in life.”
TRIO programs are federal student services that help those who are disadvantaged. Upward Bound is one of the oldest of these programs, created as a result of 1965’s Higher Education Act.
The grant ensures funding for the program for the next five years, after the original five-year grant from 2017 recently expired.
Assistant program director Joselin Fuentes says Upward Bound helps first-generation students know what to expect.
“First generation income eligible students, they don’t develop a sense of belonging,” Fuentes said. “But through our program, they get to experience college before even coming to college, as high schoolers.”
This comes after a total of $3.4 million was also awarded to six West Virginia colleges before last month’s Upward Bound funding deadline. This includes a previous $298,000 award to Shepherd University, as well as awards to West Virginia University, Salem University, Marshall University, Concord University, and Davis & Elkins College.
West Virginia native Emily Calandrelli has built a career encouraging kids, especially girls, to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
She recently spoke with Eric Douglas about her passion for space and a new project based right here in the Mountain State.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Douglas: Tell me a little bit about all the stuff you do.
Courtesy: Emily Calandrelli
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West Virginia native Emily Calandrelli is the “Space Gal” on television.
Calandrelli: I’m a WVU and MIT engineer turned science communicator. I host Netflix’s Emily’s Wonder Lab. I host and executive produce a show on Fox called Xploration Outer Space. I’ve worked with Bill Nye on his show, Bill Nye Saves the World on Netflix, and I have a series of children’s books. The main ones that people might know are the Ada Lace Adventures, which features a West Virginia girl who loves science and technology.
Douglas: Why was it important for you to use a West Virginia girl in your stories?
Calandrelli: It was important for me to have a girl as the main character first. When I was a kid, I didn’t find a lot of books about adventure and science that featured little girls as the main character. And it was also important to me that she be from West Virginia because I think as West Virginians, we know that a lot of times when we are in the news or make national headlines, it is not often for positive things. And I think that we just need a bit more positive stories about West Virginians in the world.
Douglas: Have you ever received any pushback from the publishers or anybody saying, West Virginia is such a small state? Let’s go with a kid from New York or California or something like that?
Calandrelli: It was kind of the best of both worlds because she’s a West Virginia girl who moves to California. I was a West Virginia girl who moved to California and they say write about what you know. And so there’s a little bit of West Virginia and California in there.
Douglas: Tell me about what this project you’re working on now. As with most of your projects, you’re working on STEM education, encouraging people, young people, especially young women to pursue careers in, in STEM. But tell me tell me what, what this project is all about?
Calandrelli: This is a project called The Future is You with West Virginia Public Broadcasting in partnership with the West Virginia Department of Education. And it’s all about featuring women in aviation throughout the state, the education opportunities that are right here in West Virginia, and also the job opportunities in aviation that you can get right here in West Virginia after you get that education and training.
Douglas: What are some of the growth opportunities for young people, especially young women, in West Virginia in the aviation industry.
Calandrelli: We went to the Robert C. Byrd Aerospace Educational Center at Pierpont Community College and they’re training A and P mechanics. So airplane mechanics and they’re just not very many women in that field. And it’s such a good career. I mean, it’s two years of education and the average salary of an A and P mechanic is $60,000. People later in their career can make over $100,000 with a two year certification. I think that’s really, really incredible. And those jobs are in high demand right now. The percentage of women in that field is so low. A really good way to fulfill the demand in that position is just to have more women join. And so I’d love to see more women in that field.
We went to Marshall University. They had a new flight school just open up. It’s brand new, and it looks gorgeous. And they have these new, slick planes that they’re training pilots. And they have a waiting list because there’s so many students who want to become pilots that they literally have a waiting list for students who want to learn how to fly these planes. And so they’re now working on ways to buy more planes to fill the demand there. And so it’s really, really exciting that all of this is happening all around the state.
Douglas: A lot of West Virginians probably don’t even realize there’s a really large aviation industry up in the Clarksburg-Bridgeport area
Calandrelli: Yeah, the Pratt Whitney is there and Aurora Flight Sciences. There’s a lot of jobs right there.
Douglas: You could get the A and P certification, which is airframe and powerplant I believe, and stay right here in West Virginia. It’s not like you’re getting training here and then have to move away to some other place.
Calandrelli: Sometimes the problems that we see, you get the training here in West Virginia, and then you look around, and there’s no jobs in that field that you wanted to work in. But that’s not the case in aviation. I mean, just like you said, you can get the A and P certification, and then literally go across the street from where you got that certification, and work at one of these leading aerospace jobs that are located right here in the state.
Douglas: I know you recently had a daughter of your own. What are your hopes and dreams for her as far as all of this goes?
Calandrelli: I just want every opportunity to be available to her. I want her to see every career that is available and imagine herself in it. Because all too often, sometimes when we see these careers, like pilot, for example, . You picture a certain type of person in that role. And for women, that person doesn’t always look like them. And I’m hoping that that demographic will change for a lot of these careers, especially in aviation and aerospace, so that she can see herself in all sorts of careers when she gets older.
Douglas:What’s the next big thing on the horizon for you?
Calandrelli: Oh, gosh. For me personally, I’m filming season seven of Xploration Outer Space. We’re producing that season now. So picking what we’re going to film and then we’ll go film it soon enough. I am writing more books. I have a new book coming out next year called Reach for the Stars that I wrote after my daughter was born. It’s my first picture book. And then I have a book of experiments coming out called Stay Curious and Keep Exploring that’s coming out later next fall, so about a year from now, and working on a few animated shows that we’ll be pitching very soon. So a few irons in the fire, I guess.
The project on women in aviation in West Virginia called The Future is You with West Virginia Public Broadcasting in partnership with the West Virginia Department of Education is slated to be out later this fall.
Schools across West Virginia closed Monday, March 16, for at least two weeks in an effort to help stem the transmission of the coronavirus.
Since the shutdown was announced, West Virginians around the state have been working to make sure students are fed. According to the West Virginia Department of Education, more than two-thirds of school-aged children, or more than 183,000, qualify for free or reduced-priced meals.
Mountaineers are getting creative. Some schools are offering curbside food pickups, putting lunches on school busses, and in some communities restaurants, food banks and churches are stepping up.
West Virginians are finding ways to come together in this time where people are being asked to socially distance.
Providing In Wheeling
Word started to get out that schools would likely be closing. That’s when Bob Bailey, who’s had a catering business in the upper Ohio Valley for almost three decades, said he had a sobering moment of realization.
“There are children that their main meal, or their only meal of the day, is their school lunch,” he said.
Credit Screenshot from Facebook
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Bob Bailey put a message out on social media and got a huge response.
Bailey put out a call on social media asking residents of Ohio and Marshall counties to: “please contact my business if a child relies on school lunches for their main meal of the day… I will gladly provide hot meals for children in need.”
In three days, he said more than 600 people responded, many offering to help.
“There were so many people reaching out saying, ‘Do you need money? Do you need people to come help pack lunches? Do you need people to run deliveries?’” he said.
Bailey said he received some financial donations that he’s set aside to defray food costs and that allowed him to buy biodegradable food containers. It didn’t take long to receive requests from families, including one set of grandparents who live nearby and are on a fixed income. They’re watching three grandchildren during the school closures.
“She contacted me yesterday, and she said she doesn’t know how she’s going to feed these children,” Bailey said. “So she came today and she cried, and then she made me cry.”
He said to keep in line with recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control to remain at least six feet apart, the two pretended to hug. He sent her home with meals ready to be made in the microwave or oven.
Credit Glynis Board / WVPB
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WVPB
Wheeling-based caterer Bob Bailey poses near the lunches he put together for kids out of school.
Bailey is already familiar with how to feed a variety of kids. His business, As You Like It Catering, regularly provides school lunches to Montessori’s, learning centers, preschools and elementary schools.
“We’re prepared. We know the right amount of proteins, grains, vegetables and fruits. So we make all of them balanced,” he said. “We have to follow those if we’re going to do the school lunches so we are providing all of that.”
So far, Bailey has put about 300 meals together. He provides families with enough food to last them through the week and sometimes throws in a little extra. He’s gotten additional requests this week and is now also preparing for next week.
Schools Get Creative
Credit Brittany Patterson / WVPB
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WVPB
Monongalia County Schools are offering curbside lunch pickups.
The state Department of Education is playing a large role in ensuring students across the state’s 55 counties have access to food while school is out. Clayton Burch, state superintendent of schools, said as of Monday, 505 drop sites are serving meals to kids.
In a news release, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said the U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a waiver application from the West Virginia Office of Child Nutrition to continue feeding students even though school would not be in session. Burch said they are currently working with the National Guard and other community resources like food pantries on how meals would be distributed.
Each school district has been given leeway to develop a plan that suits their individual needs.
“We asked them in a very short time period to come up with a plan to serve all their children who needed meals,” he said. “In some areas it’s a grab and go where you actually come to the school and pick it up. In other areas they’re actually running school busses to school bus stops, families homes, and I think you’ll see even other places where they’re actually tapping into community resources to get those meals out there.”
In Morgantown, Monongalia County Schools is providing curbside pickup of hot lunches between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Monday through Friday, at all of the district’s 17 schools.
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Listen to reporter Brittany Patterson's dispatch from Morgantown High School.
“During these uncertain times, we’re not sure what will happen from day to day or minute to minute, and this gives, I think, a little bit of comfort to students that they know they can come to their school and still get a school lunch,” said Brian Kiehl, director of child nutrition for Monongalia County schools.
Credit Brittany Patterson / WVPB
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WVPB
A hot lunch being provided by Monongalia County Schools during school closures.
Kiehl said the staff is still figuring out how many lunches to make each day during the coronavirus closure. They handed out about 400 meals on Monday, more than 900 on Tuesday and about 1,500 on Wednesday. On a normal day they make about 6,500.
In the Eastern Panhandle, schools in Berkeley, Jefferson, Morgan, Mineral, Hampshire, Hardy, Grant and Pendleton counties are all providing their K-12 students free breakfast and lunch through this closure period — regardless of whether they normally receive free meals.
Some counties in the Eastern Panhandle and Potomac Highlands region are offering meals-to-go at all of their school locations — while others have centralized food pick up at specific schools. Additionally, like Morgantown, some counties are offering delivery services by utilizing bus routes.
Officials say students from the Eastern Panhandle region may pick up meals at anyschool in their county offering grab-and-go meals, regardless of whether they attend that school or not.
And at least three counties, Grant, Berkeley and Jefferson, say they’ll feed any child, ages 1-18, if they show up at one of their pick up locations.
Patrick Murphy, Berkeley County superintendent of schools, said schools play a pivotal role in the well-being of their communities.
“I think as a community agency we … have a responsibility to make sure people are safe, and we have the element of being able to provide them meals and nutrition,” he said.
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Listen to WVPB's Liz McCormick reporting from the Eastern Panhandle.
Specific lists for pick up locations in all eight of the Eastern Panhandle counties are posted on county board websites, can be found via social media or by calling their county education board.
‘We Are Ready’
Across the state, there are also grassroots efforts bubbling up to make sure kids don’t go hungry.
Several Facebook groups have formed to help coordinate these efforts and connect volunteers, faith leaders, bus drivers, school cafeteria workers and local chefs. One group, called WV Food ER, began with two people, but in the past several days, the group has evolved into an effort by more than 2,000 people to assist local school systems ensure that children are being fed.
fooder_for_web.mp3
Listen to reporter Roxy Todd.
“Bus drivers and school service personnel are like all about this,” said Elizabeth Brunello, one of the coordinators of the group. “They see their responsibility to just step forward and it’s pretty amazing to see.”
She said in rural areas, it can be challenging to ensure food is being delivered to children in need.
Communities across the Southern Coalfields know this challenge well. Many have come together to work it out, and many say, this is nothing new.
Credit McDowell County Schools Facebook
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Welch Elementary School Principal Dr. Kristy East out delivering food to families this week.
“Well, let me tell you, this is McDowell County. We stay in disaster mode every day. So you know, we’re, we are ready,” said Linda McKinney who runs McDowell County’s Five Loaves and Two Fishes food pantry.
McKinney typically serves 1,200 people a month and expects that number to go up. In two days, 76 families requested food, which she said averages to about 500 people. To avoid large gatherings, she is having people pick up food by appointment only.
But getting that food down to the region is not necessarily easy with businesses shutting down and people being advised to stay home. This is where the National Guard comes in. Major Holli Nelson said the guard is collaborating with the West Virginia Department of Education to streamline food distribution throughout the state, but especially to the southern part of the state.
“We are very rural in how our population lives,” Nelson said. “We have a lot of mountains that we have to deal with. There’s connectivity issues, getting the word out of how to best push the information out to those who need it most.”
The Department of Education is also directly collaborating with staff in the coalfields to identify areas of high need, as options like bussing food to kids can be uniquely challenging in the southern region, according to Amanda Harrison, executive director of the Office of Child Nutrition.
“Late last week, our state experienced flooding in certain locations, and so we have to consider safety in terms of routes that are being taken,” she said.
There are also examples of people providing food on a very local level, not in an official state-directed capacity.
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Caitlin Tan reports from the Southern Coalfields.
That includes Spencer’s Catering and Carry-out, also in McDowell County. It is a mom and daughter-owned business that is usually open Friday and Saturday. But this week, manager Ashley Spencer said they provided lunch and home food deliveries Monday and Tuesday, adding that more than 50 kids came in to eat on Monday.
“Their meals at school are the only meals they have, so I definitely wanted to make sure Monday we were ready to go, because they had the weekend and a lot of them didn’t have food,” Spencer said.
In Boone County, Mick Frye, senior pastor of the Fountain of Life Worship Center, said they are providing a free hot lunch for kids and families, no questions asked.
“Spaghetti, we got string cheese, a little bit of yogurt, some carrots and then also, you know, some ice cream, something like that, just something kids like,” Frye said.
Credit Roxy Todd / WVPB
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WVPB
The church has a bus ministry that provides free transportation to church service and Frye said that is helping them reach out to families who they know need food right now.
He said he is quite hopeful that kids will get fed in the Southern Coalfields.
“You know, we know poverty, and people have always been willing to reach out and even when times were rough, you know, West Virginia and southern West Virginians have always known how to get through those things because we just come together and help each other,” Frye said.
So although coronavirus is a very new type of crisis to hit the region, many southern West Virginians said this is nothing new, that the resiliency of the communities will help see them through this pandemic and maybe they can even be a model, again, for other communities throughout the country.
This story is part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Southern Coalfields Reporting Project which is supported by a grant from the National Coal Heritage Area Authority.
The West Virginia State Board of Education has selected someone to take over as state superintendent of schools.
The board announced on Friday that associate superintendent Clayton Burch will be stepping up immediately.
Before he was associate superintendent, Burch briefly served two governor-appointed positions in 2018.
He was appointed to fill in for Secretary of the Arts after Gov. Jim Justice fired then-secretary Gayle Manchin in March 2018. That same month, Justice signed House Bill 4006, eliminating the position and dividing up what was then the Department of Education and Arts among various other state agencies.
That June, Justice appointed Burch as interim Secretary of Commerce, the governor requested the resignation of former secretary Woody Thrasher. Thrasher is challenging Justice for the Republican gubernatorial nomination this year.
The Board will continue its national search for a superintendent while Burch fills in, according to a press release shared on Friday.
Board members learned they would have to hire a new superintendent after Steven Paine, who has filled the position since 2017, announced his resignation in late January.
Paine, who also served from 2005 to 2011, said he was stepping away from the position to take care of a family member and spend more time with his grandchildren.
