WINFIELD, W.Va. — Winfield High School in Putnam County was one of a few public schools in West Virginia that received an A letter grade by the state Department of Education.
Earlier this month, department released those grades to all 668 West Virginia schools as part of the first-ever West Virginia A-F School Accountability System.
Bruce McGrew, principal at Winfield High, said they’re proud of what they’re doing, but they’re not satisfied.
“We want to be better today than we we were yesterday,” McGrew said on MetroNews “Talkline.”
McGrew said they hold students accountable for their academic performance. He said he believes students have bought into what his staff preaches each day.
“We talk about test scores. We talk about the importance you got to be at school. We want everybody to graduate. We want to get better in our scores,” he said.
Wnifield High’s attendance rate is above the state average, McGrew said. He said keeping kids in school can be challenging, so teachers try to create a positive culture within the school.
“Not only do they know their subject, but they care about kids and when you care about somebody, you’re going to get some results in other areas too. That’s where we’ve been able to capitalize is the culture here makes kids want to perform well, makes kids want to be at school,” McGrew said.
Most of West Virginia’s schools that were graded earned Cs because the initial results were produced on a bell curve. School officials said the C grade meant that school is making acceptable progress with students and that the system was designed for the majority of schools in the state to receive a ‘C’, setting that bar for future improvement.
To view letter grades at your child’s school, visit www.mywvschool.org.