Fifty-one West Virginia Schools Awarded Exemplary Status

Identifying schools that comply with the requirement of State Code and State Board policies, the report also identifies school districts and schools that failed to meet the requirements and provides an impetus for action to correct identified deficiencies. The results of the education performance auditing system strengthens West Virginia’s education system by providing a mechanism for self-assessment by the school districts and schools to identify specific areas needing attention and to prioritize goals and objectives.  

“This is the first time schools have been awarded the exemplary accreditation status,” State Superintendent Dr. David Stewart said. “Fifty-one schools achieved this distinguished status, with almost half of the state’s school districts having one or more schools receiving the exemplary rating.”  

Stewart explained that the accreditation/approval status of schools and school systems is based on compliance with performance and process standards for students, schools and school systems. The standards include extensive student performance measures that indicate when schools and school systems are providing a thorough and efficient education system, Stewart noted.  

The West Virginia Board of Education confers exemplary accreditation status when all the following performance measures are achieved and the high quality standards are met:

• Seventy-five percent or more of the school’s students in grades three through 11 perform at or above the third quartile in total basic skills and 10 percent or fewer perform within the first quartile;
• Student attendance rate is at or above 94 percent;
• Student dropout rate is at or less than 3.6 percent; and
• Twenty percent or more of the school’s students score at or above three on the Writing Assessment.

Nearly 80 percent of the state’s schools were issued Full or ExemplaryAccreditation status and more than 81 percent of the school districts were issued Full Approval status. Counties that received full approval status include: Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Brooke, Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Gilmer, Grant, Hampshire, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Kanawha, Lewis, Marshall, Mason, Mercer, Mineral, Monongalia, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Summers, Taylor, Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, Wood and Wyoming counties.