West Virginia student assessment scores reach pre-pandemic levels

The West Virginia Board of Education reviewed student assessment results for the 2025-26 school year, noting that proficiency in math and English Language Arts (ELA) has largely returned to or exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

Vaughn Rhudy, the assessment director for the West Virginia Department of Education, reported that math proficiency reached 39.4 percent, an increase from previous years and slightly above the 38.7 percent recorded in 2019. ELA proficiency has also remained steady or improved compared to 2019 levels, though eleventh-grade ELA proficiency saw a decline from 55 percent to 51 percent.

Science proficiency showed a slight decline of one percentage point. Officials noted that the drop in eleventh-grade scores, which include the SAT School Day Test, was a trend observed in other states as well. West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt identified eleventh-grade performance as a concern, despite a 70 percent proficiency rate among students in Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.