All but three schools met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. County Superintendent, Skip Hackworth announced today that seven schools made the grade.
“We are very proud of our administrators, teachers and students,” said Hackworth.   “Even as the NCLB standards become more rigorous, our schools continue to close the achievement gap.” 
The standards that a school must achieve to meet AYP are increasing. The increase in standards is mandated by the federal government so that 100 percent of students meet the NCLB proficient level by 2014. In 2007 the standard increased approximately four to six percentage points in reading and math.
West Virginia Achieves, the state’s NCLB accountability plan, focuses on closing the achievement gap between student subgroups.
All West Virginia students are required to take the West Virginia Educational Standards Test (WESTEST), an assessment that measures student achievement of the West Virginia Content Standards and Objectives (CSOs). AYP is determined by WESTEST scores and attendance or graduation rates.
Hackworth said that Reading and math scores on the WESTEST continue to improve. 
Mineral County’s attendance rate for the county is 97.8.3% and the graduation rate is 91.5%. 
The statewide average for attendance is 96.4% and the graduation rate for the state is 83.8%.
NCLB has played an important role in closing the achievement gap, its emphasis on standardized testing does not fully support the skills students need to be globally competitive. 
“I am a strong supporter of educational accountability and believe in closing the achievement gap,” Hackworth said. “But we recognize that it is time for us also to focus on the quality mission and that means embedding 21st century skills into all that we teach.”
The West Virginia Board of Education and the WVDE in collaboration with the educational community have updated West Virginia CSOs to align with 21st century skills.  
The WESTEST is also being reviewed to reflect the changed CSOs.
Meanwhile, of the seven Title I schools in Mineral County, all but one met AYP in 2008.
The one Title I school not meeting AYP must provide the “school choice” sanction and supplemental educational services.
“It is important to point out that if a school is identified as not meeting AYP, the status should not reflect on the teachers or students,” said Hackworth. “A school can be identified for a variety of reasons and we will make certain to assist the school as it improves its student achievement levels.”
Mineral County will use the recently released data to analyze students’ academic strengths and weaknesses and, in turn, develop specific improvement initiatives. Currently, Mineral County has instituted the following initiatives to improve student achievement at Keyser Primary/Middle School.
Keyser Primary/Middle School:
• Continue building capacity with the Reading First program in the primary grades and introducing the concepts to the middle grades.
• Continue utilizing Title I teachers as “academic coaches” throughout the school.
• After-school tutoring, including bus transportation.
• Implementation of Talent Development, a reading program developed by Johns Hopkins University, designed to target and assist struggling readers in the middle school grades.
• Participation in summer teacher academies designed to provide teachers with the best research-based teaching practices.
• Providing on-going professional staff development by recognized experts in the fields of reading and mathematics throughout the school year.
• Providing additional laptop computers so that teachers can more readily access the myriad of state-level educational websites, such as “Teach 21.”
• Employment of trained Technology Integration Specialists who will provide sustained professional development on the integration of technology into the regular school curriculum in order to better teach 21st Century Skills to all students.
•Implementation of “Tech Steps,” a program designed to assess student proficiency in computer literacy, and
• Implementation of “NovaNet,” an on-line standards-based program used for remediation of struggling students and enrichment for higher achieving students in core content areas at the middle school level.
For more information about West Virginia Achieves and the 2008 AYP numbers, visit the West Virginia Department of Education web site wvachieves.k12.wv.us/resources.html