| By Bob Weaver
Calhoun County was one of 44 West Virginia counties that failed to meet the new federal standards of No Child Left Behind. Only 11 counties met the criteria.
State officials announced last fall that about 300 of 730 West Virginia schools didn't meet the new federal standards. Thirty-three schools dropped below the standards for two or more years.
Clay, Cabell and Upshur counties didn't meet federal standards for graduation rates or attendance. Calhoun almost failed the graduation rate by one point.
Calhoun students have significant problems with reading, according to the Unified County Improvement Plan.
School administrator Greg Cartwright addressed the county school board this week regarding the problems.
Cartwright said the SAT-9 data for the county reveals several trends in the scores over the past several years. Most prevalent are problems with reading scores which are consistently lower than math and language.
Calhoun Middle School failed to meet the standards for subgroups of students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged. Students at Calhoun High School failed to meet the standards for all tested students and the economically disadvantaged subgroup.
Arnoldsburg and Pleasant Hill elementary schools meet all the accreditation standards, often exceptionally.
"Improving reading skills, particularly in vocabulary, have become a primary goal," he said. Student's reading scores appear to peak about the fifth and sixth grade, and then consistently decrease. The data Cartwright presented to the school board is from the past seven years.
When reading scores go down, so do math and language scores, he said.
"Under No Child Left Behind, we are accountable for each of the scores individually for the entire school population and sub-groups," said Cartwright.
The report said "Our reading scores at the lower grades are solid and indicate students are getting a good foundation in reading skills." The steady decline in reading scores say "We have either not taught those well enough to be fully ingrained in students, or that we fail to teach them new skills they should acquire as they mature..."
Cartwright outlined several improvement objectives which are being put in place, particularly in upper grades.
Cartwright expressed concerns regarding the school meeting the graduation rate of 80%. "This past year, we barely did," he said. "It will likely continue to be a problem."
The SAT-9 has been replaced with the WestTest, which will impact scoring this year.
The new data is expected to spark discontent from legislators and state and county school officials who say West Virginia schools need more federal money to raise test scores and meet the standards.
School systems say the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act is poorly funded.
"There are sanctions for school districts that fail to make progress for two years and beyond, but we're still researching what those standards may be," said Steve McBride, executive director of school improvement at the state Department of Education.
Many county school systems, including Kanawha and Putnam, failed to meet the standards because not enough special education students took a standardized exam, or special-needs children who took the test scored poorly.
The Department of Education hasn't reported the county-by-county No Child Left Behind data to the Legislature and state Board of Education.
The 11 counties that passed: Barbour, Jackson, Marion, Mineral, Mingo, Morgan, Pocahontas, Tyler, Wayne, Webster and Wetzel.
Berkeley, Monongalia, Logan, Fayette and Jefferson counties didn't meet the federal standards because of low test scores among black students.
Hispanic students in Jefferson County also didn't meet the testing standards. Jefferson schools didn't test enough non-English-speaking students.
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