West Virginia Department of Education Story Archives - Page 2 of 24

Students Selected For Senate Youth Program

Two West Virginia student leaders will be traveling to the nation’s capital this March to study the American political processes.

Each year, two high school juniors or seniors are selected from each state for the Senate Youth Program (USSYP) in Washington D.C. USSYP is an intensive week-long educational experience and scholarship sponsored by the United States Senate for outstanding high school students who are interested in pursuing careers in public service.

West Virginia’s delegates this year are Bryson Riggleman, a senior from Petersburg High School and Peyton Barker, a senior from Greenbrier East High School. Both are student government presidents at their schools.

Riggleman said he’s excited to represent the state and learn up close about how the government works.

“It’s one thing to read something in a textbook,” he said. “It’s another thing to apply it outside of the textbook and into real life. I want to see what it looks like in real time, in real action.”

Barker said she is most looking forward to meeting and learning from fellow student leaders from across the country.

“Every person has so many different things to offer,” she said. “I really just want to work on my ability as a leader, and just learn from others. That way going forward, whether I’m an engineer, a politician, helping middle school students or raising my kids, I know that I’ve been fully equipped.”

Photos courtesy of the West Virginia Department of Education

Student delegates also receive a $10,000 undergraduate college scholarship to the college or university of their choice. To qualify, students had to complete an application process that included essays, interviews, recorded speeches and an exam.

Joey Wiseman, director of student enrichment for the West Virginia Department of Education, said a selection team comprised of constitutional officers such as West Virginia Supreme Court justices and other professionals make the selection each year.

“It’s a great opportunity for students,” he said. “We’re always trying to promote students to look at different careers and we need public servants out there in the field.”

Petersburg High School Principal Amanda Campbell said although she was very proud of Riggleman, the credit is all his.

“This is what he has just been called to do,” she said. “He is always at the forefront of any kind of question about how we’re doing things with the school, how we can make them better. He is a proponent for his classmates when there’s something going on.”

Mike Vincent, school counselor at Greenbrier East High School, has similar praise for Barker.

“I’ve had other students that have made it to the interview process. I have not had any students that have gone on to be one of the two going to D.C.” he said. “She is the one that should have done this so I’m really glad that she did. Because it’s just such a perfect fit for her.”

Justice Highlights National Recognition For Communities In Schools

West Virginia is the first state department of education to receive national certification as a licensed partner of Communities In Schools (CIS).

Active in all but two of the state’s counties, the program’s site coordinators are based in schools. They coordinate with community partners to bring outside resources into the schools. From addressing immediate needs like food or clothing to more complex challenges such as counseling and emotional support, CIS uses an evidence-based model that is adaptable to meet a child’s, or a community’s, unique needs.

During his regular briefing Tuesday, Gov. Jim Justice highlighted the program, calling it the most successful program he had ever seen in schools.

“All we are doing in West Virginia, and all we continue to do, is step up and help a kid,” he said.

Later in the briefing, Justice was asked how he measured the program’s successes given the variety of issues facing the state’s students. He highlighted the impact of the program on the state’s children for a small investment.

“The site coordinators and these people are reacting and they’re doing it,” he said. “There is so many success stories, it’s unbelievable. For nothing, for peanuts in the scope of things. Whether it be two or $5 million. It sounds like a lot of money, but in the entire scope of our education department and in schools, it’s peanuts.”

The governor and First Lady Cathy Justice have supported a statewide CIS initiative since 2018, when it was in just three counties.

The West Virginia Department of Education said Communities in Schools has supported more than 100,000 students in the 260 schools where it has been implemented.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting produced two documentaries on the state’s CIS program, “Communities in Schools: Extending a Helping Hand” and “Communities In Schools: Friends With Paws.”

Student Mental Health Focus Of Conference This Week

School mental health professionals from across the state will have a chance to train in Charleston this week.

The West Virginia Department of Education is presenting the Student Support Conference Wednesday, Nov. 29 and Thursday, Nov. 30 at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center. The event will provide a forum for school counselors, school social workers and other community partners to strengthen information channels and resources within the statewide student mental health and well-being network.

Stephanie Hayes, coordinator for school counseling and student support for the West Virginia Department of Education, said professionals will have opportunities to talk about best practices and working together to meet the needs of students.

“We’ll have breakout sessions going to cover everything from trauma to behavior interventions, mental health support, things like bullying prevention, suicide prevention, body safety education, sessions on resources that are available to support students who are homeless, or to support student mental health needs,” she said.

Hayes said student mental health issues continue to rise because of the ongoing opioid epidemic in the state and recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“Being out of school, and then trying to return to school and get back to normal, we’re seeing a lot of students who are struggling with depression and anxiety, as well as some behavior issues,” she said. “We’re doing what we can to support our students.”

According to Hayes, students’ growing needs are complicated by a shortage of mental health professionals in the state.

“I think it’s just really important to provide the professional learning opportunity for those professionals that are working to support students because when you come to a conference, and you’re able to network and learn about new resources, it provides you with new energy to go back into the school,” she said. “Sometimes those professionals are just tired, and sometimes overwhelmed with the problems that they’re seeing our students face. We really just wanted to provide this as an opportunity to provide those resources and networking and just kind of a refresher refuel for our professionals that are in the schools day in and day out.”

State Educators Hope To Transform Students’ Reading Ability Early

Studies show that if children aren’t up to speed by the third grade it can indicate future difficulties in and out of the classroom. A new law is now in effect across West Virginia to implement more effective reading education.

Reading is a fundamental life skill. Studies show that if children aren’t up to speed by the third grade it can indicate future difficulties in and out of the classroom. A new law is now in effect across West Virginia to implement more effective reading education.

At the Bruceton School in Preston County, Robin Hagedorn’s first graders are preparing to break up into small groups for the day’s reading lesson.

“It takes me a whole month to train my kids in their stations, so that they know what to do,” Hagedorn said. “I was nervous, and I worried, and I wanted to make sure I had all of my ducks in a row for Miss Vicky and myself.”

Miss Vicky is Vicky Nieman, a paraprofessional that joined Hagedorn’s classroom this year. Hagedorn says she is so grateful to have the extra help because individualized learning in small, student-led groups by six-year-olds is made much easier by having another adult in the classroom. Nieman agrees.

“Having that second person you can just jump in, if you see somebody getting off task or needing a page turned, and you don’t have to disrupt the whole entire class. I feel like it’s going smoothly,” she said.

Nieman is in a first-grade classroom this fall thanks to House Bill 3035, also known as the Third Grade Success Act. Passed earlier this year by the state legislature, the law aims to address low reading and math test scores across the state.

“I think the legislature understood the need to close the achievement gap as it pertains to literacy in our state,” said Jonah Adkins, director of the office of pre-K through 12 academic support for the West Virginia Department of Education. “They saw the need in general to do something, to address our deficits. There was a sense of urgency there.”

The most recent results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress published October 2022 showed that West Virginia students had some of the lowest reading scores in the nation and were at least 10 percent behind the national average.

Adkins says bringing extra help into the classroom will be one of the most visible changes of many implemented by the law. But he points out the name Third Grade Success Act only hints at the scope of the undertaking. The work to ensure that students are reading on level by the third grade starts much earlier.

“That would actually be kindergarten through third grade that are actually getting this instruction,” Adkins said. “Now, the first-grade classrooms, they are the ones that were introduced to our EL-CATs, early classroom childhood assistant teachers were introduced to first grade this year. Next year, they will be introduced in second grade and the year following, they will be introduced in third grade.”

The state’s educators aim to achieve results through several changes including regularly screening and assessing students’ development, continuous contact with parents and guardians and focusing instruction on what is called the “science of reading.”

Mindy Allenger, associate professor of literacy instruction for pre-service and in-service teachers at Marshall University, said phonemic awareness is the foundation of how children learn to read. Phonemes are the distinct sounds that make up a word.

“We’re segmenting a word by sounds like cat C-A-T and we’re manipulating; if I take off the C and add a M, that’s Matt. So that’s manipulating,” Allenger said. “All of those are features of phonemic awareness.”

West Virginia is following the lead of other states like Mississippi and Tennessee that focus on evidence-based fundamentals like phonemic awareness to produce repeatable results across classrooms. Before, most counties tended to choose one curriculum and stick to it. Now, teachers are welcome to draw from multiple sources as long as what they implement is aligned with the science of reading. Allenger likens it to medical care: what worked in the past shouldn’t trump cutting edge research.

“We’re not looking at anecdotes, where I say, ‘Oh, well, my little one learn to read like this,’ or ‘I like to teach like this,’ or ‘This is how I learned.’” she said. “Instead, this is all based on research. And so it’s quantitative, meaning we have numbers, it’s reliable. And reliable just means ‘Can the results be reproduced, no matter who’s testing, no matter what conditions, and it’s valid, meaning that it’s really testing what it says it’s gonna test.”

Allenger and other educational trainers say the science of reading already underpinned most literacy instruction nationwide, so teaching programs have not had to change their curriculums. Before this year, the level of awareness of the science of reading and its application have varied greatly from county to county in West Virginia. That led the Department of Education to launch a teacher training initiative.

“As you can only imagine we’re on all different levels across the state,” said Kelly Griffith, coordinator for the office of pre-K through 12 academic support of the West Virginia Department of Education. “We have some people that they’re just learning about the signs of reading, they’ve never heard it before. But then we also have some really great high fliers that have been using it in their classroom, and that we are highlighting as model examples in the classroom.”

She says the state office has been hosting trainings all summer and into the fall, as well as creating a library of resources online.

“We’ve been doing regional rollouts for the county level. We’re taking the county level admin, the LEA’s of each county, and we are training them on all of the resources that we have developed to date,” Griffith said. “They have everything that we’ve developed for educators. Our plan is to build the capacity in the districts and support them because they know best the needs of their individual counties and where their teachers are.”

One of the next steps for the implementation of the Third Grade Success act will be a focus on numeracy and math education, another subject where state test scores have lagged after the COVID-19 pandemic. But in these early months the focus for Allenger and other educators remains on reading.

“The inspiration and the hope that if I can make sure that all my little first graders leave, knowing how to read, what other gifts could you give to someone’s life, then teaching them how to read?” Allenger said.

Ohio County Board Of Education Reviews Medical Cannabis Policy

Under the policy, applications for cannabis use would be restricted to students who provide a doctor’s certificate and produce a parent’s signature. Additionally, the guardians or parents of the student must apply for an official medical cannabis card through the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

The Ohio County Board of Education met Monday to discuss a new medical cannabis policy for its students.

Last year, the West Virginia Department of Education adopted a policy (Policy No. 2422.7) to establish standards for the possession and use of medical cannabis by students.

During Monday’s meeting, the Ohio County Board of Education discussed the details of that policy and its strict limitations.

The student would also be required to produce a separate identification card from the DHHR. The guidelines also require that a physician must provide written certification the student has a medical condition that requires cannabis.

Ohio County Schools nurse Melissa Soltesz said under the guidelines of the policy, only caregivers or guardians could administer medical cannabis to a student on school property, or at a school-related event.

“Nurses will not be administering it,” Soltesz said. “It can’t be delegated; it can only be the caregiver or guardian who has the card.”

Students authorized to use medical cannabis could only use gummy drops or pill forms of marijuana but would not be allowed to leave the cannabis or the medical card on school property or with a school official.

At this time, no students in Ohio County have requested to use the policy. Raleigh County adopted a cannabis policy earlier this year.

State Schools Eye Impact Of Government Shutdown

West Virginia schools rely on several federal grants, including child nutrition programs from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and special education funds from the U.S. Department of Education.

With the threat of a federal shutdown at the end of the week, the state’s schools are keeping an eye on the situation.

West Virginia schools rely on several federal grants, including child nutrition programs from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and special education funds from the U.S. Department of Education.

Melanie Purkey, the federal programs officer for the West Virginia Department of Education, oversees the grants for child nutrition, special education funds, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act funding. She also works closely with colleagues in the career and technical office that receive federal funding.

Purkey said the programs work on a reimbursement process, with counties applying for reimbursement from the state who then request reimbursement at the federal level.

“Each fiscal year, we receive a grant award that is similar to a letter of credit from the federal government, and we have an allocation that says you have up to this much,” she said.

Purkey said that means the state has the ability to cover expenses for a time, but if the shutdown stretches into November there may begin to be cash flow issues.

“If we’re entering into November, we would start those conversations and anticipate that at month two or three, the counties and or the state would start to have some cash flow issues if we were covering these expenses,” she said. “I believe the state would probably try to cover county drawdowns from the state level until there was no more cash flow at the state that could float that.”

The 2018-2019 federal shutdown was the longest in U.S. history at 35 days. Purkey said during that time, reimbursement requests were still processed through the shutdown.

“The federal agencies do have the ability to keep essential staff on, and typically the people who process drawdowns are considered essential staff,” she said. “In past shutdowns of the federal government, we have not had any issue with drawdowns not being processed, because those agencies have considered those folks, essential staff.”

Over the past decade, there have already been three federal government shutdowns and Purkey said her office is familiar with the process.

“We’re not overly concerned, but Congress is very unpredictable,” she said. “We will just watch the news every day and see how they are coming with their negotiations, and hope that they can resolve whatever issues might get them into a shutdown quickly.”