Officials discuss virtual school, iReady numbers
PARKERSBURG - Wood County Schools Superintendent Will Hosaflook provided several updates during Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Wood County Board of Education.
Among the items presented:
- Recent numbers show 1,658 Wood County Schools students enrolled in the West Virginia Learns online virtual school. Those numbers are down slightly from about 1,850 students enrolled at the beginning of the school year. The school system allowed a two-week window from the start of classes for families to return to in-person classes if desired. Hosaflook said that window is now closed, and those remaining students will continue in virtual school until at least next semester. However, Hosaflook noted while some similar-sized school systems in West Virginia have a third to nearly half of their student population enrolled in virtual school, locally virtual school students only represent about 14-15 percent of the total Wood County Schools enrollment.
- Wood County Schools saw a slight decline in the number of students being homeschooled this year, about 770 compared to 800 last year. Hosaflook said state-level increases in homeschool accountability may have contributed to the decline.
- Officials said diagnostic reports from the iReady program have shown a 3.8-4 percent regression in math and English language arts skills since the end of the 2019-20 school year. However, Hosaflook noted the decline comes after the final months of last school year were disrupted by COVID-19, which also led to a later start to the 2020-21 school year. Officials often see math and language skills decline slightly during summer break, also known as the “summer slide,” while students are out of school. Hosaflook said officials had anticipated a much greater loss in skills, and he praised both students and teachers for their work and perseverance. “It’s never about the programs, it’s about the people,” he said. “What this tells me is we have a lot of really good people who have bought in to a really good program.”
- The Wood County Board of Education reviewed a draft summary of a parent and staff re-entry survey. The full survey will be released later this week, and the board is scheduled to review the district’s re-entry plan at the board’s Oct. 27 meeting.