In May, students in Logan County Schools took the WESTEST 2, a custom designed annual assessment for students aligned to West Virginia’s 21st Century CSO’s. The assessment results provide information about a student’s academic strengths, as well as areas that need improvement.

Harless Cook, director of Guidance and Testing for Logan County Schools says that during the week of Sept. 3, counselors and Principals will be going into the classroom to discuss the student’s test results with them, and on Thursday, Sept. 6, students will take home their WESTEST 2 student report

“The WESTEST 2 student report indicates levels of performance in each of the content areas,” said Cook. “Results of the tests will be used by teachers and other staff to improve student learning and performance.”

Students in grades 3-11 were assessed. Results from the state assessment determine Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Out of the 17 county schools that were accountable, 11 met AYP compared to eight schools in 2011.

— 10 of 11 Title I Elementary Schools made AYP, as did Man Middle School.

The schools not meeting AYP were Man Elementary, Logan Middle, Chapmanville Middle, and the county’s three high schools.

— The Elementary schools meeting AYP were Buffalo, East Chapmanville, West Chapmanville, Holden, Hugh Dingess, Justice, Logan, Omar, South Man, and Verdunville. The Middle School making AYP was Man Middle School.

— 46 percent of all elementary students met proficiency in Math and 45.6 percent met proficiency in Reading/Language Arts.

— 40.4 percent of Middle School students met proficiency in Math and 48.1 percent met proficiency in Reading/Language Arts.

— 34.9 percent of 11th grade students (the High School grade of accountability) met proficiency in Math and 37.0 percent met proficiency in Reading/Language Arts.

— Of the Three high schools that were accountable for AYP, only one, Chapmanville Regional High met the graduation rate by showing improvement from 2011, but did not meet AYP because of test scores. Logan and Man High met proficiency by test scores but did not make AYP because of low graduation rates.

— 100 percent of Logan County’s elementary and middle schools met or exceeded the attendance standard of 90 percent (county was 95.7 percent).

— All schools exceeded the standard participation rate of 95 percent in all subgroups.

Results indicate that Logan County did not make AYP because of the All, White, and Low SES subgroups in Elementary, Middle and High School, the Sp. Ed. Subgroup in Elementary and Middle in Math and the All, White, and Sp Ed subgroup in Middle and High School and Low SES subgroup in Elementary, Middle and High School in Reading/Language Arts.

More than 64 percent of schools in Logan County (11 out of 17) made Adequate Yearly Progress last year, a significant increase from the 47 percent of schools that met AYP the year before. That’s more than the statewide figure for all West Virginia schools, where 57 percent met AYP.

Logan County’s Math scores increased over last year in six grades with two grades staying the same while Reading/language Art scores decreased in six grades, increased in two with one grade staying the same. One school, in particular, South Man Elementary, in Reading/Language Arts, went from the lowest score in the county in 2011 (30.43 percent) to the 2nd highest in 2012 (57.14), an increase of 87.78 percent. Principal Danita Noel attributes the increase to the Title I teacher and Interventionists working collaboratively with the classroom teacher and a new supplemental reading program, Units of Study by Lucy Calkins from Columbia University, implemented by Superintendent Wilma Zigmond and Title I Director, Darlene Adkins.

In 2011, Logan County had 76 students who scored distinguished in both Math and Reading/Language Arts with 15 of those scoring distinguished in all four core subjects.

“In 2012, we had 73 scoring Distinguished in Math and Reading/Language Arts with 24 of those scoring distinguished in all four core subjects, an increase of nine,” said Cook.

State Superintendent Jorea Marple and state education officials have placed less emphasis on school-wide results and more on individual student growth. When looking at scores from 2011 and 2012, many students increased their math or reading scores from the previous year.

“Our goal is that students are ready to be successful whether they go to college or enter the workforce,” said Dr. Marple. “Even the schools that were not able to jump over the AYP bar still showed individual student improvement and that should be commended.”

The West Virginia Department of Education will be launching a new website which will go deeper into student achievement data. The website will feature individual student growth. As opposed to student proficiency, student academic growth is defined as the change in an individual student’s performance from one year to the next, regardless of proficiency level.

The student growth data will allow teachers to personalize learning based on individual student needs.

The WVDE has developed a parent website to provide resources that can be used at home to help with more rigorous schoolwork. The website can be found at http://wvde.state.wv.us/parents21

Additional WESTEST 2 data can be found by visiting http://wveis.k12.wv.us/nclb/public12/nclbmenu.cfm