| By Bob Weaver
Results of West Virginia's revamped Westest 2 standardized achievement test show more than half of state students are proficient in math and reading.
Following a revamp of the test, more than 65 percent of elementary students tested were proficient in math and reading.
All three Calhoun schools reached Average Yearly Progress (AYP).
This follows the announcement that Calhoun Middle-High School has been taken off probation, following a recent return audit by the state Department of Education (OEPA).
Calhoun Superintendent of Schools Roger Propst has praised principal Karen Kirby and the school's staff for their hard work improving the school's performance since 2007.
Calhoun's two elementary schools, Pleasant Hill and Arnoldsburg scores:
Pleasant Hill: 66% proficiency math; 77% in reading
Arnoldsburg: 67% proficiency math; 62% in reading
Calhoun Middle-High School, while meeting AYP this year, after three years of failing to reach the standards, scored:
CM/HS: 48% proficiency in math
CM/HS: 48% proficiency in reading
Students in grades three through 11 took the test in the spring.
State officials say the test was revised to measure students on several new skills, including critical thinking and problem solving.
Earlier this year, the state Department of Education spent about $101,000 in newspaper ads and about $34,000 in radio ads to communicate changes to parents about the systems new Global21 initiative.
The ads, which first appeared across the state in March, were paid for with federal education dollars.
Textbooks are being changed from the primary source of instruction to just another resource teachers will be using.
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