CHARLESTON, W.Va. — While Kanawha County Schools performs ahead or similar to the average state institution, the school system has multiple goals it wishes to accomplish next year.
The Kanawha County Board of Education heard at its meeting Thursday a report regarding test scores in the county, and where officials want to be in 2020.
According to Jon Duffy, Kanawha County School’s director of counseling and testing, the goals for the district are to increase academic achievement, raise graduation rates and boost the county attendance rate.
Kanawha County high school juniors performed ahead of the state on the SAT School Day exam; students scored 961 points out of 1600 in math and English/language arts, compared to the state’s 928 score. The average score of international students was 973.
Juniors took the exam during a school day last year.
The county’s score improved on the international students between 2018 and 2019, but most of the progress was on the English/language arts component.
“With the SAT, students can certainly strive to score at a level that allows them to get into the college they want to attend, allows them to qualify for the promise scholarship,” Duffy said.
Duffy said the school system also wants to reach a 90% high school graduation rate; the county’s graduation rate was around 84% for the 2017-2018 academic year, while the state’s rate was 90%.
“Our goal for that is to exceed 90%,” Duffy said, noting a short-term goal of increasing graduation rates by 2% every year until the mark is met.
Kanawha County Schools is ahead of the state on attendance, with 93.5% of students attending class compared to the 92.9% average.