West Virginia’s State Highlights

Summary of Grades

West Virginia scores at or above the average state in all four of the graded policy categories in Quality Counts.

In standards and accountability, West Virginia ranks among the top states in the nation. It performs especially well on the standards and assessment indicators. In all of the core subject areas and at nearly all grade spans, the state has academic standards rated clear and specific by the American Federation of Teachers and assessments aligned to those standards. The state also fares well on school accountability measures, both sanctioning and providing assistance to all of its low-performing schools.

The state also earns an above-average grade in teacher quality. One of only 15 states to require and finance mentoring for new teachers, West Virginia earns full credit in the area of professional support and training of teachers. But the state shows room for improvement on policies for teacher education and qualifications.

West Virginia scores at the national average in school climate. It does very well on measures of facilities and school and class size, earning full credit in those areas. But the state does not fare as well in other areas. It loses points on school choice and autonomy for having a limited open-enrollment program and lacking a charter school law.

West Virginia ranks among the leading states in resource equity. It has the best coefficient-of-variation score in the nation, indicating a low level of disparity in per-pupil funding across districts in the state.

Note: Details may not sum to totals due to rounding.