Tag: K-12

Twenty-three W.Va. Counties Will Be Remote, Virtual School This Week

The West Virginia Department of Education announced that 23 counties will be remote learning-only for the week of Nov. 29. State officials rolled out updated data Saturday, Nov. 28 at 5 p.m. Gov. Jim Justice has called for all schools to begin the week in remote learning, with those in green, yellow and gold able to return to in-person or blended learning models on Thursday, Dec. 3.

Mason, Mineral, Ritchie, Wirt and Wyoming counties, which were in the red zone on the state’s color-coded map, will not be open for in-person instruction this week.

Berkeley, Boone, Brooke, Doddridge, Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Harrison, Jefferson, Marshall, Mingo, Ohio, Pocahontas, Putnam, Taylor, Wayne and Wood counties were in the orange category and will also be remote learning-only.

Additionally, Upshur County, as of Saturday evening, is the only county that voluntarily entered the red designation to offer remote learning-only.

The COVID-19 Data Review Panel also announced that seven counties shifted in their color zones. They included:

  • Hancock County: Moved from orange to gold due to data validation and one case updated with the correct county of residence.
  • Harrison County: Moved from gold to orange due to data validation, 14 cases updated to confirmed status and two cases updated with the correct county of residence.
  • Jefferson County: Moved from gold to orange due to data validation and one case updated to confirmed status.
  • Logan County: Moved from yellow to green due to data validation and lab results updated to the correct county of residence.
  • Ritchie County: Moved from orange to red due to turning red on the DHHR 10:00am Saturday map.
  • Upshur County: Moved from yellow to gold due to data validation, eight cases updated to confirmed status and two cases updated with the correct county of residence.

Red (Substantial Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. No extracurricular competitions or practices are permitted. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in red include: Mason, Mineral, Ritchie, Wirt, Wyoming

Orange (Heightened Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. Extracurricular practices may occur, however, competitions may not. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in orange include: Berkeley, Boone, Brooke, Doddridge, Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Harrison, Jefferson, Marshall, Mingo, Ohio, Pocahontas, Putnam, Taylor, Wayne, Wood

Gold (Elevated Community Transmission): In-person instruction is permitted with restrictions, including face coverings at all times for grades 3-12. Extracurricular activities are permitted. Competitions can take place against schools within the same county as well as schools in other gold counties. Counties in gold include: Barbour, Cabell, Hancock, Morgan, Preston, Upshur, Wetzel

Yellow (Increased Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings at all times for grades six and above. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in yellow include: Calhoun, Fayette, Greenbrier, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Marion, McDowell, Monroe, Nicholas, Pleasants, Raleigh, Tyler

Green (Minimal Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings in grades three and above when students are outside of core groups and in congregant settings and on school buses. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in green include: Braxton, Clay, Gilmer, Lewis, Logan, Mercer, Monongalia, Pendleton, Randolph, Roane, Summers, Tucker, Webster

All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the WVDE’s re-entry map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.

Updates to the map are announced each Saturday at 5 p.m. and will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time, according to the WVDE. The only exception would be if a county turns red during the week.

If this happens, the change would be made immediately to the map, according to the WVDE, and all in-person instruction and extracurricular and athletic activities would be suspended.

As of Saturday morning, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports 45,845 total cases of the virus and 718 deaths. More than 15,700 cases are considered active. In the past 24 hours, more than 790 new cases have been identified in the state.

Guidance Counselors Build Bridge With Students Amid Mental Health Concerns And COVID

Jen Mills has been a school counselor in Jefferson County, West Virginia for six years, and she’s been a middle school counselor there for four. Unlike school years past, she and her colleagues are navigating a global health pandemic.

“Last year, we’re planning field trips, we’re planning all these things, [but] this year, we’re just kind of in a holding pattern and trying to keep everybody safe,” Mills said.

Mills is among the more than 750 school counselors in the state who have had to step up and fill the gaps for reaching students during a challenging and stressful time in their lives. Such engagement for many, has had to come at a distance. But most of these counselors are determined to find creative ways to be there for children who they know depend on them for support.

For Mills, almost everything about her job this year feels brand new. Regardless of whether kids are attending school virtually or in person, it’s now much harder to connect with them.

For her in-person kids, masks make it challenging to hear or pick up on kids’ expressions or emotions. But Mills is finding ways to check on each student every day.

“I like to take the temperatures in the morning,” she said. “And that’s a really nice check in for me. So, I can sort of get my eyes on as many kids as I can and talk to them and just have a little bit of dialogue.”

Mills said it’s not typical for a school counselor to check the temperatures each morning, but she requested it since it lets her see how students are doing up close.

“During the onset of the coronavirus, school counselors in West Virginia went above and beyond,” said Stephanie Hayes, coordinator for the West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Student Support and Well-being.

Hayes said when the pandemic started, counselors provided information to parents about the most appropriate ways to communicate with and support their children during the pandemic.

“Counselors are using email, phone calls, letters, video chat, and a variety of technology platforms to provide social-emotional supports and resources and to meet the needs of students,” Hayes said.

Hayes said such support is a top priority for the WVDE. She noted social-emotional support is especially important during challenging times, like the coronavirus pandemic, because trauma can have deeply negative impacts on a child’s ability to learn.

Virtual students, though, are even harder to reach than in-person students.

About half of Jefferson County school kids have opted for virtual this fall compared to the rest of the state, where a majority of students have chosen to attend in-person when possible, according to the WVDE.

“For my virtual kids, it’s exponentially more challenging,” Mills said. “Because … just reaching them. And counseling for my virtual kids has been more about technology issues, and really [a] focus on academics versus the social-emotional aspect.”

Mills has also noticed something new this year. She’s not just hearing from the kids — she’s also hearing from parents who need help.

“I’ve heard a lot of kids and adults, not teachers, but parents say, ‘I’m really crying, and I don’t know why,’” she said. “That’s been my biggest presenting issue this year. ‘I’m crying, and I don’t know why’ from both adults and kids. And, it’s just their outlet of their release.”

Mills said she thinks she’s more needed this year than ever before by students, parents and teachers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report in July highlighting the importance of reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. The agency points to students’ social and emotional needs. The CDC study found that keeping schools closed can create negative impacts from isolation.

The CDC estimates that on average, one in five kids experience some type of mental health condition. Yet only 16 percent of those kids with a condition receive any treatment. Agency experts say, however, most kids can receive this care in a school setting.

If students can’t be in a physical school setting, that creates more challenges.

“As much as is safe, and as much as we can, we need to find ways to connect,” Marianna Linz, chair of the psychology department at Marshall University, said. Linz specializes in pediatric psychology.

Linz said students must stay connected, whether through a socially distant visit or over digital platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. For personal mental health, Linz thinks connection is key and is especially important for young learners.

“As children are finding it more and more difficult to connect with each other socially, the longer that goes on, we worry about the impacts of that, in terms of them feeling more isolated,” Linz said. “So, we need to make sure we’re providing [teachers] with enough training and also enough assistance so that they can attend to all the needs of the kids.”

Linz acknowledged that the state’s ongoing challenges with substance abuse, including its opioid epidemic, may create a greater concern for students and their families.

“We know that kids that already were struggling before the pandemic hit are going to be more adversely affected,” she said. “And so, we want to be ready to meet those families with the extra support that they need, because that’s going to allow [students] to make better progress and avoid negative outcomes.”

Linz is also worried that more kids may ultimately end up dropping out of school as a result of isolation brought on by the pandemic.

School counselors work with a variety of individuals at the school who are connected with at-risk students, according to Hayes at the WVDE. They do this to ensure all needs are being met — with heightened attention right now during the pandemic.

“School counselors work with other members of the school staff to develop a plan to check on students on a regular basis,” Hayes said. “[They] also provide education and resources to remind other school personnel of the continued responsibility as mandated reporters and the responsibility to students who may be more at-risk during this stressful time.”

Teachers are required to report home-life issues they observe.

It’s also important for students to learn coping mechanisms to identify and deal with stress, Linz said. It’s especially critical during unprecedented times.

“Sometimes it just requires somebody who can help you sort through things,” she said. “Mental health and physical health are really not any different. We wouldn’t hesitate to go to the doctor when we’re sick. When we’re feeling challenged and stressed in ways that are impacting us and our families, we shouldn’t hesitate to reach out and get that same type of assistance.”

What To Know About Changes To W.Va.’s K-12 Academic Competitions, Events For 2020-2021 School Year

This is a developing list and may be updated.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of West Virginia’s K-12 academic competitions have seen some changes this year. Some are completely virtual, some have been canceled, and some have seen some rule changes.

Here’s how some of the 2020-2021 school competitions in the Mountain State will look.

Science and Social Studies Fairs

The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) reports the West Virginia Science and Engineering Fair and the West Virginia State Social Studies Fair will both be held virtually this school year.

County and regional competitions for these fairs have been canceled, and submissions will move directly from the school to the state-level competition.

If a school chooses to participate, it will need to select a school-level fair contact, and that coordinator will be the primary liaison between the WVDE and the school.

Each participating school will submit one project per grade band to the state for judging. There are three grade bands: 3rd through 5th, 6th through 8th, and 9th through 12th.

These projects are to be considered the school’s “best of fair” and will act as this year’s Science or Social Studies Ambassadors from their county.

All projects will be completed individually this year. No teams or group projects will be allowed. Projects are to be submitted to the WVDE as a 3 to 5-minute video presentation. These can either be a video or voice over PowerPoint. All fair rules still apply.

The West Virginia Science Fair will be held from March 1, 2021 through March 12, 2021. The West Virginia Social Studies Fair will be held from April 5, 2021 through May 6, 2021.

Golden Horseshoe

The Golden Horseshoe Exam will take place this year, but the testing process is still in the planning stages. Specific information will be available mid-November.

Geography Bee

The National Geographic Society has cancelled the 2020-2021 GeoBee.

Young Writers

The Central WV Writing Project plans to conduct the Young Writers competition this school year, but specifics are still being determined. The WVDE’s contact for the project is Barbara O’Byrne: bobyrne@marshall.edu.

Office of Technical and Adult Education

The WVDE has suspended all state-level, in-person Career Technical Student Organization (CTSO) events through Dec. 31, 2020. These organizations include DECA, Educators Rising, FBLA, FCCLA, FFA, JROTC, SkillsUSA and TSA.

Many of these organizations adjusted their strategies from their traditional format of in-person events and were able to conduct their Fall Leadership Conferences remotely, according to the WVDE. Some were held live on a virtual platform, while others delivered content through pre-recorded workshops and by mailing workshop supplies to schools.

In collaboration with the Agricultural and Extension Education faculty at West Virginia University, WV FFA was able to hold three of its career development events virtually.

The Office of Technical and Adult Education has formed a taskforce to prepare a plan for how 2021 will look for CTSO events through virtual, in-person or a hybrid of the two.

Due to the connection with the Department of Defense, JROTC will not hold in-person competitions this school year.

W.Va. Education Union Files Injunction As Governor Defends School Re-Entry Map

The West Virginia Education Association, which is West Virginia’s largest teachers’ union in the state, filed an injunction Monday morning challenging the safety of the governor’s school re-entry map.

The injunction claims the state map is unsafe and under constant manipulation by state officials just to get students back into brick-and-mortar classrooms.

The injunction also seeks to temporarily suspend the map, as well as the enforcement of the West Virginia Open Meeting Act as it relates to the panel that meets prior to the map’s posting on Saturday nights.

The school re-entry map is determined by a panel of experts every Saturday from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and the West Virginia Department of Education.

Last week, WVEA President Dale Lee announced his intention to file the injunction with the Kanawha County Circuit Court. It was officially filed Monday.

“We know how important it is for students to be back in classrooms working with their teachers,” Lee said in a news release. “No one wants in-person education more than our members, but they no longer feel their safety is the top priority of our state government’s leadership. Our goal is for students to return to school as soon as possible but we must be able to do that safely based on the circumstances in individual counties.”

The union points to Harvard’s color-coded map, which shows a higher rate of COVID-19 spread in the state. The union is calling on Gov. Jim Justice to follow this map, or independent health experts, instead.

Justice responded to the injunction in a recent virtual press briefing.

“If we were going just by the Harvard model, we know, we would have a third to a half of the state of West Virginia, probably the safest state in the nation, a third to a half of the state would be shut down,” Justice said. “You know, from the standpoint of being in school … We know 70 percent of the people in the state of West Virginia wanted to go back to school.”

The governor argues the move by the union is political.

House & Senate Debate Future of Education Standards

Both the House and Senate are considering bills this year to change the state’s education standards once again. It’s a reoccurring theme at the statehouse since Republican lawmakers took control of the chamber in 2015.

In the Senate, lawmakers have approved a bill that does not replace the current college and career ready standards taught in schools, but calls for a cyclical review of those standards with the input of West Virginia teachers.

In the House, however, the discussion over potential changes is just beginning.

The bill taken up by a House Education subcommittee Wednesday would replace the state’s current standards with Math standards first used in California in 1997 and English standards from Massachusetts in 2001. Members of the subcommittee didn’t make changes to those provisions, but are recommending lawmakers give counties the flexibility to adjust state standards as they see fit.

House Bill 2443 would repeal Common Core standards in West Virginia and replace them with standards from that are almost 20 years old. Common Core, however, was repealed by the West Virginia Board of Education in 2015 and replaced with a new set of standards that were the result of statewide public hearings on the issue.

The five delegates on the K-12 subcommittee had previously discussed allowing counties to take the state’s current standards and make changes to them — which could potentially result in 55 different sets of education standards in West Virginia. All five members voiced a need for counties to have flexibility in the classroom, but there was some question over how much.

Republican Delegate Steve Westfall of Jackson County questioned Sarah Stuart from the State Department of Education, about the impact of allowing counties to change just 5 or 10 percent of the state standards to address local education needs.

“I do have a little concern, and I’ll express why,” Stuart said, “We are required to adhere to ESSA, Every Student Succeeds Act, and under ESSA, it requires that all states to have challenging, academic standards…and they have to be the same for all public schools in the state. So while, I think we could add 10 percent to the barebones standards that we’ve established at the state level…I do have some concerns with changing the standards for different counties just based on the language of ESSA.”

“Okay, so you’re saying… [we] would have a set of standards for all 55 counties, but if Wayne County wants to add a program for whatever; miner training or something, or Jackson County wants to have something for the Toyota plant, something that fills a need, then you could add to it?” Westfall asked.

“Absolutely,” Stuart answered.

Later during discussion, Westfall encouraged his fellow members to recommend to the full committee the importance of having a statewide set of standards, but to allow counties the flexibility to add additional programs where there’s need.

Delegates recommended adding permissive language in the bill to reflect that.

While all five members of the subcommittee voted to move the bill forward to the full committee on Education, some Democrats still expressed concerns about the implementation of the older California and Massachusetts education standards included in the bill, including Delegate Stephen Baldwin of Greenbrier County.

“The standards that we have in place were developed with the input of our teachers and of education stakeholders here, and the real issue? For me is continuity,” Baldwin said, “High school seniors right now have been through four sets of standards. If we were to change again, that’s just gonna cause problems in the classroom, and that discontinuity would really affect a student’s ability to learn, much less a teacher’s ability to teach.”

Baldwin, who is a former member of the Greenbrier County School Board, also says he feels the fight over standards is more about curriculum.

“Curriculum is where counties and teachers have the flexibility to make decisions about how they teach what they teach, and standards just set a standard for what students ought to learn,” Baldwin noted, “So I think those standards for what students ought to learn should be statewide standards, and then teachers and counties should have flexibility through their curriculum to figure out what’s best for them about how to learn that.”

Delegate Upson, who’s a sponsor of House Bill 2443, says teachers in her county want more flexibility when it comes to standards.

“Anytime that you give the state more control and you push that down to the local level, and you give counties the option to kind of decide what standards and assessments best meet the students that they serve,” Upson explained, “Now, I know that because of the Every Student Succeeds Act, we have to have a uniform assessment, but I have gotten feedback from teachers in the Eastern Panhandle that we just mandate too much from in Charleston, and so they would like to see a lot more flexibility and control at the local level.”

House Bill 2443 has also been second referenced to House Finance, and Delegate Upson says the House will likely consider the Senate’s version of the bill which has already been approved by the chamber.

National Geographic, NOAA Grant Promotes Understanding of Watersheds

  A grant is equipping West Virginia geography and science teachers with tools to help better educate young people about watersheds. For one teacher, the chemical spill that left more than 300-thousand without usable water was a wakeup call of just how important this program really is.

Cherri Mitchem can remember her childhood growing up in Southern West Virginia.

“You know, I grew up near streams that were not good, the ones that you could smell before you got there, and I remember that,” Mitchem said. “But it never occurred to me that there was a way to fix it.”

Mining activity has damaged streams and rivers throughout the coalfields of Appalachia. As a science teacher at Pikeview Middle School in Mercer County, Mitchem hopes to help her students have a better understanding of watersheds and how they affect what we drink.

“Yes, I think water, especially with our students, it’s just, it’s taken for granted,” Mitchem said. “They go to the tap to get water out, but it never occurs to them where it came from, how it got there, what steps have to be taken for them to be able to drink it, and what they do throughout the school day while they’re at school can impact that same water.

Mitchem realized she needed to do more after watching student’s reactions to the Elk River chemical spill that left 300,000 without access to usable water  earlier this year. She says while students knew what was happening, they thought there was an ‘easy fix’ to the problem. It was this confusion that inspired her to explain the situation in a more practical, hands-on sense.

Thanks to the  Chesapeake Bay Science and Geography Initiative, Mitchem received a grant from the National Geographic in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  The money is available for water quality field tests to groups in states that that are in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. More than 150 rivers and streams  flow into the bay’s drainage basin, which covers parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.  

As an adjunct instructor at Concord, and grant administrator, Mitchem is preparing to share hands on teaching techniques with other West Virginia educators. 

She says one of the ways to test the influence of watersheds is through teacher workshops. 

“Part of the reason we’re taking the teachers outdoors is to give them a first-hand idea of what you can do with your students,” Mitchem says. “They can actually take the students to the streams, and we’ve also had a  workshop of how they can bring the stream to their students.”

Mitchem says that while first-hand experience is ideal – she realizes some teachers are restrained due to a lack of money. “Some schools, some areas, some teachers simply aren’t able to take a field trip to a stream. It’s just not going to happen.” She continued, “we’ve given them lots of alternatives. Alternatives where they can just use backyard,  bring the water in and do the testing.”

Robert Miller is a graduate student at Concord University. This past year, Miller along with other master’s program students collected water samples in Mercer County to study watersheds and test the alkalinity, pH and oxygen levels. Miller is also  a 7th grade teacher at Madison Middle School in Boone County. 

Miller plans to take the methods back to his classroom. 

“The lessons we’ll learn there, we’ll be able to take those back to some streams that are perhaps not so healthy and we’ll be able to make our connections there,” Miller says.

Joe Manzo is a professor at Concord University and co-coordinator with the West Virginia Geographic Alliance: a partnership between the college and K-12 schools. The geographic alliance is responsible for administering the funds from National Geographic. Manzo says the grant program helps the alliance promote better geography curriculum in West Virginia’s Public Schools.

“So our overall goal is more geography and better taught geography,” Manzo said. “And through the program, that are incorporated through the alliance, teachers have those kinds of opportunities.

Overall, 70 teachers applied for the grant money. 

Exit mobile version