With West Virginia placing near the bottom in several major national education rankings, there are questions about how to change the system in order to get better results from students.
Educators and administrators said it’s not as simple as kids studying more or teachers performing better. They said a number of outside factors have invaded the state’s classrooms, with many children’s lives changing forever.
“Over 20 percent of our children in Logan County, I'll use Logan because it's home, I have students with special needs. I mean, break your heart special needs, some of them. The worst function as the president of the board that I've ever had to do is look at a parent, or grandparent or foster parent for a child that desperately needs an aide whether it be a full-time aide, a transportation aide or a combination of both. And for me to look at them and tell them that I can't give them the services their child deserve and should have because of a funding structure or formula that's beyond my control. That is the worst function that any board member can have and it happens far too often,” Sen. Paul Hardesty (D-Logan) said.
West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the nation.
A study released by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy revealed that in 2016 nearly a quarter of the state's children lived below the poverty line.
Educators said students who don't have enough food, proper clothing or health care bring a complicated and serious set of needs with them every day they come to school.
“Well, it's necessary for the survival of our children. How can you look at a child that walks into school and doesn't get a meal? I mean, how can you do that, knowing that they're coming hungry? Or they're out there, we have a major clothing fund here at the district that we buy coats and shoes for our kids. How can you look that child in the face and say, oh, well you're here to learn, forget all that? You can't do that. Our mission, our vision is our love for our kids and to make sure that we're taking care of them and we're doing the best we can to help them reach their potential. And part of that is the social/emotional needs which grows more and more every day. And then we've got to couple that with the academics. So, you have a kid that's coming to school and they're in survival mode. They don't know where their next meal is coming from, if they're going to go home and somebody's going to be there for them. And so, then we're saying okay, this kid needs to come in and be perfectly educated. That's just not going to happen,” Kanawha County Superintendent Ron Duerring said.
While West Virginia's standardized testing results are nothing to cheer about, the state superintendent of schools says West Virginia does a pretty good job of teaching children whose families struggle financially. He says the test results of students with low socio-economic status are better than the state's overall poverty rankings.
“The fact of the matter is that I think because we have so many kids in poverty that our teachers understand those characteristics of that general population. And so that's probably the reason why we do that well. And I have to give our teachers credit, they know their kids, they meet kids where they are and they try to do the very, very best they can with those kids,” West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine said.
“I can cite you example after example after example of students who were struggling and having problems that with the right encouragement and the right help from the right teacher, are now doing great and successful things. Every teacher has stories. And if you think about it, if you think about the person outside of your parents or your church who had the most influence on your life, I would say that probably 90 percent of the people think of a teacher,” WVEA President Dale Lee said.
But the problems aren't limited to just poor kids struggling to get by. West Virginia's ongoing opioid epidemic presents another unique hurdle. Students have seen family members succumb to addiction. In some cases, losing parents to death or imprisonment. Educators say children in crisis mode at home can't be expected to just flip a switch and perform like all-stars when the school bell rings.
“We not only look at that test data and those kinds of numbers, but we look also at our kids that we're getting, we're trying to get them to school every day. We're getting them the health services they need. We're helping them get food. We're working with outside agencies. Some of these kids come to school in the survival mode and if we can get there, at least they're every day and in the seat and paying attention that's part of our success looking at that whole student and just not those test scores,” Duerring said.
The lack of parental involvement is also cited as one of the main factors in a child's struggles in school. With grandparents stepping into the role of primary caregiver for more and more Mountain State children the obstacles to those youngsters finding success in both school and life are growing.
“That is how education has changed. We've actually become the parents. We feed them breakfast, we feed them lunch, we hook our students up with outside agencies. We work with local churches and things to send food over the weekend in backpack with food so they can eat. We're feeding them during the summer. We do a summer feeding program. We're doing more with our kids with health services and we don't have enough nurses to do that. We have kids coming on that have been born because their parents were on drugs, the opioid crisis, kids in jail. Grandparents are raising their kids, the whole societal, everything that's happening right now is so different than it was in the past,” Duerring said.
“We need to change the funding structure and to give these kids that have needs the services they provide. Because you know what, that accountability number you talked about? They qualify, they're in that number. And if we're not providing their basic needs whether it be whatever, that also leads to this number you're talking about of not working. They're mainstreamed and integrated in. They're in that formula. That's a big concern to me,” Hardesty said.
Hardesty is talking about students with special needs. He made the point that if you don’t help them succeed and just plug them into a classroom, their test scores count just as much as every other student. He said the system’s failure to aid those with special needs contributes to the state’s dismal national rankings in math and English which no one seems to be happy or satisfied with.
Next week, as out series continues, we will tackle a question that many people have asked: How much does the state really spend on public education each year in West Virginia?
We will give you that number, take a look at the spending trend over the last decade and show you if costs are in line with the reality of a declining statewide public-school enrollment.