Student Achievement Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Hundreds Of Social Studies Projects On Display At Statewide Fair

Students from across the state participated in the 2024 West Virginia Social Studies Fair Wednesday. More than 500 students, ranging from third graders to high school seniors, presented their projects at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.

Students are grouped into three divisions. Division One includes grades three through five, Division Two is for grades six through eight, and Division Three is for grades nine through 12.

Topics included anthropology, economics, political science, U.S. history, psychology and more.

Dustin Lambert, coordinator in the West Virginia Department of Education’s Office of Student Enrichment Programs, said the fair gives students an avenue to express their creativity and their joy for social studies they may not otherwise have.

“It’s really interesting to see their own interests and how that blossoms within them,” Lambert said. “I also find it fascinating that under the state and local category, we see projects related to very personal topics related to these students as it relates to their communities and even their families.”

One project that stood out to Lambert is from his home county of Pocahontas County.

“There’s this little guy that has a project on Cass Scenic Railroad and he is so incredibly proud of the research that he’s done,” he said “So much that Cass Scenic Railroad featured him on their Facebook page. As you can imagine, it just really did bolster the confidence of this young guy. He is super excited to be here.”

The projects are judged based on their oral and visual presentation – which can vary from a triboard poster to a multimedia presentation – as well as the project’s abstract.

“The abstract has certain questions that we ask of them through their research,” Lambert said. “What did you learn through your research? Where did you get your resources? How do you know those resources are credible? We’re not only allowing these students an opportunity to express themselves, but we want to make certain that they understand how to properly research and validate resources.”

Lambert said students had to first progress through school, county and regional fairs to present at Wednesday’s event.

“These students today had already been through three different rounds of judging, and this is their fourth round,” he said “As I relayed to them this morning, it’s a really big deal for these students who have made it to the states. So whether or not they place at the state level, personally, that’s kind of irrelevant to me. That they’ve made it this far as impressive enough.”

Amidst a renewed focus on English Language Arts and STEM topics in schools in recent years, Lambert said social studies remain important for students to understand the world around them.

“History is very, very important to the lives of our students, and especially in this polarized culture that we live in,” he said. “I think it’s very important that students are taught history, civics, economics, so they understand the full scope of our society, and I hope that that continues. I hope that the social studies fair promotes that it is allowed to be promoted in our counties.”

Students Drive Statewide No Drinking And Driving Campaign

For the past ten years, during every high school graduation and prom season, the annual No School Spirits Public Service Announcement contest involves West Virginia students producing alcohol awareness videos.

West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Commissioner Fred Wooton said the videos must focus on the dangers of drinking and driving or underage alcohol use.

“This year, we had 53 video entries and over 400 students participating in the program,” Wooton said. “We just wrapped up our awards presentation ceremonies, and it’s an incredibly tough job to judge those 53 entries.”

Wooton said teenagers take the no drinking and driving message to heart – when it doesn’t come from adults.

“The focus of those messages is about making good decisions about using alcohol, and the message will resonate much louder when those steered students hear it from their own peers,” he said.

Five contest finalists won cash prizes that must be used for a school related event or project. Clay County High School was the $5,000 grand prize winner last year and used their winnings to build an in-school broadcast and recording studio.

Clay County High School’s new broadcast study. *Credit: WV ABCA*

Shady Springs High School won the 2023 Grand Prize. Their PSA is now playing on TV and radio stations around the state.

Wheeling Central High School placed second and won $2,500. Hurricane High School came in third and won $1,000. South Charleston High School and Tolsia High School finished fourth and fifth, each winning $750.

Justice Signs Education Bills With Grade Schoolers

After a playful half hour of taking questions in the school gymnasium from the all-student audience, the governor had students help hold his pen as he began signing House Bill 3035, the Third Grade Success Act, putting teachers aides in grades one through three.

With his bulldog Babydog by his side, Gov. Jim Justice traveled to Leon Elementary in Mason County on Tuesday to sign four bills passed during the West Virginia Legislative session. All of them were education based.

He told the kids the classroom helpers would help them better prepare for the future.

“What we want to have happen is we want to ensure that all of you, every single last one, gets off in school to a great start and you’re able to master certain skills that will absolutely take you off in a really good way. We don’t want anybody behind,” Justice said.

The governor and the students signed three other bills into law:

House Bill 3369 creates a School Safety Unit within the Division of Protective Services.

Senate Bill 422 requires public schools to publish curriculum online at the beginning of each new school year.

And, House Bill 2005 establishes the dual enrollment pilot program for high school juniors and seniors in conjunction with state colleges, universities and community and technical colleges.

Leon Elementary is the home school of fourth grade teacher and Senate Education Committee Chair Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason, who was emcee of the event. Grady read questions to Justice submitted by the students.

Olivia from the sixth grade asked if the governor got a lot of letters. That prompted the longtime high school basketball coach to tell a story of perseverance.

“I got a letter the other day from a kid I coached 25 years ago,’ Justice said. “I hadn’t heard from him in 25 years and this kid was just like a lot of y’all, didn’t have a whole lot growing up just like me. This kid worked really hard and in his letter he told me, ‘You told us a long time ago when we were playing for you in the national tournament to keep sawing the wood.’ He asked me what that meant and I told him that it meant just to stay at it and you’ll make steady progress. The student said, ‘I went to West Point, then I went to army ranger school and said in every deployment I ever had, I reminded himself every day to keep sawing the wood.’”

The question that got the biggest reaction from Justice and the kids was, “What is your favorite food?” Justice said he and Babydog were the same – chicken nuggets. A few minutes later, someone handed the governor a bag of chicken nuggets.

Babydog smelled them, and got up off his front legs. Justice fed his beloved pet a nugget, but didn’t eat one himself.

W.Va. Students Fell Behind During Pandemic, But Officials Say Scores Will Help Tackle Gaps

State officials released student testing data for 2021 this week. Scores in math, science and English language dropped during the pandemic.

Students in grades 3 to 11 were tested this year.

Overall, 40 percent of West Virginia students were proficient in English language arts, down 6 percentage points from 2019. In science, 27 percent were found to be proficient — also down 6 points.

But math saw the greatest drop — down 11 percentage points from 2019 — showing a 28 percent proficiency rate.

The overall 2021 test results are a combination of three assessments: West Virginia General Summative Assessment in grades 3-8, the SAT School Day in grade 11 and the West Virginia Alternate Summative Assessment in grades 3-8 and 11.

Results are based on students who were enrolled full-time and in school for at least 135 days during the academic year.

Students were not tested in 2020 when the pandemic began.

This latest news adds to previous concerns about sagging achievement in the Mountain State. Prior to the pandemic, West Virginia students were already below the national average in all three subjects. That’s according to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. These tests are often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card.

State Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch urged caution on making any direct comparisons between the pandemic year and previous years, saying the declines are not unique to the Mountain State.

“It’s going to be nationwide. It’s not going to be just here in West Virginia,” Burch said in the West Virginia Board of Education’s August meeting. “I mean, we continue to say we had nearly 50,000 children that were not in a brick-and-mortar school for nearly 18 months.”

Burch said test scores from this year will be used strictly to focus on COVID-19 recovery efforts and address individual student needs going forward.

State school board member Debra Sullivan agreed with Burch, saying the scores from 2021 are not the whole picture.

“A test is but a snapshot of a moment in time,” Sullivan said. “It’s not the whole child. It’s not the whole academic, intellectual capability or reflection of the whole child. It is a snapshot.”

Much of the dip in student performance was a result of participation rates, back-and-forth between remote and in-person classes, and learning disruptions over the past year-and-a-half, officials said.

This summer, thousands of students in West Virginia took part in a robust, summer school program called SOLE. More than $30 million was divided up among West Virginia counties. The program’s aim was to accelerate academic progress and address social-emotional and developmental losses.

“The journey through recovery will address the needs of the whole child – academics, well-being and developmental growth,” said Burch in a press release. “Districts are encouraged to look at the 2021 assessment results with an emphasis on individual student performance and use the information to construct the larger story of what is needed for meaningful recovery and growth.”

Additionally Wednesday, state school board members approved a limited waiver for this fall that allows all students for the first nine weeks of school access to extracurricular activities like sports, band and theater — regardless of GPA. Typically, a student must have at least a 2.0 to be eligible.

State school board members say the policy is to enable students who struggled to keep their grades up during the pandemic time to catch up.

“We do not see this limited waiver as an excuse for low academic performance, but instead an avenue for students to re-establish consistent engagement with their schools and benefit from the social-emotional, academic and extracurricular supports schools offer,” said WVBOE President Miller Hall in a statement. “These children have had so much taken away from them, and it is important that we look for ways to keep them connected so they can learn and thrive.”

Student Rescue Act Aims To Help W.Va. Pupils Whose Grades Plummeted During Pandemic

A bill to help K-12 students in West Virginia catch up on schoolwork following the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is moving through the West Virginia House of Delegates.

The House Education Committee advanced HB 3217, or the Student Rescue Act, Tuesday evening.

It would provide kindergarten through 12th graders with concentrated summer courses to make up for instruction time, class credits and grade level specific-skills lost due to the pandemic. The law would also apply to any future pandemic or natural disaster that lasts longer than 21 days.

State and federal funding would pay for the courses, teacher and administrative pay, building upkeep and transportation. However, if there is no interest among parents or students, county school boards would not be mandated to offer the summer courses under the Act.

“Every county right now is not offering some type of summer remediation program that our kids need and deserve, quite frankly,” House Education Minority Chair Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, said. “So, this not only sets forth, even in the current pandemic, but in the future, if there’s some type of natural disaster — I know a lot of times we have flooding throughout the state — that we can offer these to our children to make sure that they’re caught up in school, and that they can keep up with their scholastic efforts.”

Hornbuckle is the bill’s lead sponsor and first mentioned the idea of the Student Rescue Act during a legislative lookahead event in early February.

Del. Cody Thompson, D-Randolph, a school teacher who taught during the pandemic, reflected on the difficulties he saw among his own students as well as others around the state.

“What we’ve seen happen is students’ reading levels have fallen, their math abilities have fallen, and then our high school students, who needed the classes to graduate, many of those were not getting the resources or the encouragement and the supervision they needed,” Thompson said. “This would ensure that they can make up those credits so they can get back to grade-level reading and mathematics.”

The Student Rescue Act passed unanimously out of the House Education Committee and will now be considered in House Finance.

House Education Chair Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, said in committee there is not a fiscal note for the bill at this time, but he said one could be available when it’s considered in the House Finance Committee.

The West Virginia Department of Education reported that in fall 2020, one-third of K-12 students in West Virginia failed at least one core subject due to the inconsistencies in learning models as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Arts Alive 2016 Airs Live Friday, April 22

Watch the Arts Alive performance via live stream, starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 22.

Arts Alive is the West Virginia Department of Education’s annual event to showcase outstanding arts education programs and student achievements in public schools. The work included in Arts Alive is selected from state arts conferences, festivals and exhibits throughout West Virginia; a competitive submission process; and/or by invitation. Arts Alive is in its eighth year and has expanded collaborations and interdisciplinary partnerships to include work from the following areas: Dance, Music, Pre-Kindergarten, Science in the Arts, Theatre and Visual Arts. Students perform and exhibit work before an audience of students, family members, educators, policy makers, leaders, advocates and philanthropists.

Arts Alive aims to support developing and established arts programs in public schools throughout West Virginia; inspire local education systems to embrace the arts as an essential part of every child’s education; and empower the broader learning community to advocate for comprehensive arts education in public schools.