MULLENS, W.Va. — Mullens Elementary in Wyoming County joins just two other schools in the state to be selected as a 2025 Exemplary Practice School.

A fairly new award that was created last year through the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), it recognizes the school’s efforts to improve student outcomes through research-based and data-driven practices overtime.

Mullens Elementary School Principal Kara Shumate

Mullens Elementary School Principal Kara Shumate said they were more than honored to receive such recognition as student achievement and academic growth have been their focus for a while now.

“We are extremely honored, I’ve said this a few times today that, you know, we come from small town living, we’re a very small elementary school where everyone knows everyone, and we know we’ve been doing these things for years now that have attributed to our growth at our school, it’s just now we’re finally being recognized for it,” Shumate said.

The school held an assembly on Tuesday to celebrate the achievement with representatives from the department of education.

Mylan Park Elementary School in Monongalia County and White Hall Elementary School in Marion County were the other two selected as this year’s Exemplary Practice Schools. They held celebrations earlier this month.

To become an Exemplary Practice School, schools must work to implement research-based practices that address critical areas and significantly improve student proficiency, including in math and English curriculum areas, student attendance, school culture, and teacher preparation.

Shumate said the majority of those different improvement areas have been their focus.

“Our focus has been on PLCs, which is our Professional Learning Community, and that focuses on collaboration between our teachers in grade levels, our teachers in departments such as our math department and our ELA department, and working through standards for standard-driven instruction,” she said.

She said they decided to apply for the award program after recommendations from their assistant superintendent, and they were notified that they were one of the winners following an observational visit from the WVDE.

Shumate said she believes collaboration between teachers, staff and students is what ultimately catapulted their success.

She said as far as teacher collaboration goes, they always have a lot of different avenues to hone in on when looking at their instruction and how it will be delivered.

“What is this teacher doing versus what is that teacher doing, and so, we use that data to kind of see what type of instruction is producing the best result, and we share those with each other,” she said.

Additionally, Shumate said what they found with student collaboration is that a lot of the children learn by communicating with one another.

“We present them with problems that require them to think, and they collaborate with each other and really have to discuss what they are learning, how they’re doing it, how they got there, and it kind of makes them evaluate their thought process when they’re solving problems,” Shumate added.

The school was presented with a banner as an award for being recognized during Tuesday’s assembly.