RIPLEY, W.Va. — Jackson County School Superintendent Blaine Hess says he’s pleased with report card grades for schools in his county.
Last week, the state Department of Education released those grades to all 668 West Virginia schools as part of the first-ever West Virginia A-F School Accountability System.
In Jackson County, Ripley High and Evans Elementary received “A” grades. “B” grades were given to Fairplain Elementary and Ravenswood High.
“Based on the first time out, which is where the state is kind of setting the bar for moving on from this point for improvement, I think that it well positions us for future growth,” said Hess on MetroNews affiliate WMOV Radio in Ravenswood.
The remaining schools in Jackson County received “C” grades. That includes: Cottageville Elementary, Gilmore Elementary, Kenna Elementary, Henry J. Kaiser Elementary, Ravenswood Grade School, Ripley Elementary, Ravenswood Middle and Ripley Middle.
But Hess said these grades are not the same as if a student brought home a “C”.
“The ‘C’ grade means that school is making acceptable progress with students,” Hess explained. “The system was designed for the majority of schools in the state to receive a ‘C’, setting that bar for future improvement.”
Most schools earned “Cs” because the initial results were produced on a bell curve. The state school board considered “Cs” and above to be acceptable.
Hess said they’ll take these grades and make the improvements they need to, but that these grades don’t define them.
“The grades are primarily based in terms of academic achievement on the Smarter Balanced Test, which is a test that’s given one time a year, so while this is important part of your school grade, you got to realize that’s just one part of what schools do,” he said.
To view letter grades at your child’s school, visit www.mywvschool.org.