Charter school board reviews test scores, enrollment, budget

CHARLESTON — West Virginia Vocational Charter School Board members received a briefing Thursday morning on the first batch of comparable assessment results for their first group of public charter schools, an enrollment preview and a budget approval for the upcoming fiscal year.

Last month, the state Department of Education released the Statewide Aggregate Assessment results for the 2023-2024 school year.

The Statewide Summative Assessment examines proficiency in math, English Language Arts, and science. The results consist of the General Summative Assessment for third through eighth grades, the SAT School Day Test for high school seniors, and the Alternative Summative Assessment for third through eighth grades and 11th grade. There was a 95% participation rate among the grades tested.

Only two of the state’s four physical public charter schools and two statewide virtual charter schools have been able to participate in the Statewide Aggregate Assessment for two consecutive years since updates to the law by the Legislature in 2019 providing for the creation of the public charter school pilot program and the establishment of the Professional Charter School Board in 2021.

“These are very early trends because as you know we have six authorized charter schools and only four of them have been open for two years,” PCSB Executive Director James Paul said. “There are only four schools that have two years of data and there are only four schools that can have trends.”

According to results presented to PCSB members, Morgantown-based West Virginia Academy and Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy in Kearneysville outperformed proficiency rates for public schools statewide, while the public schools also outperformed West Virginia Virtual Academy and Virtual Preparatory Academy.

Based on overall results calculated across all grades for the previous school year, West Virginia Academy’s math proficiency rate was 40% in the 2023-2024 school year and 28% in the 2022-2023 school year. Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy’s math proficiency rate was 44% last school year and 20% in the school’s first full year of operation.

For public schools, 36% of students tested were proficient in math last school year, compared to 35% in 2022-23. West Virginia Virtual Academy’s math proficiency rate was 14% last year, compared to 7% in 2022-23. Virtual Preparatory Academy’s math proficiency rate was 20% last school year, compared to 14% the previous school year.

In ELA, West Virginia Academy’s proficiency rate for the 2023-2024 school year was 55%, up from 47% in the 2022-2023 school year. Eastern Panhandle Preparatory Academy’s ELA rate was 50% last school year, up from 46% the previous school year. ELA proficiency in public schools was 45% last school year, up from 44% in 2022-23.

West Virginia Virtual Academy had an ELA proficiency rate of 36% last school year, up from 23% the previous school year. And Virtual Preparatory Academy has an ELA proficiency rate of 34% for the 2023-2024 school year, up from 24% the previous school year.

“Remember, these are school-level results,” Paul said. “This data does not talk about individual student growth. There is some state data provided on individual student growth that is part of the Balanced Scorecard that the state released in September.”

“I immediately started thinking about virtual and what might be happening is students are adjusting to the teaching methodology and strategies that are being used,” PCSB member Dewayne Duncan said. “They’re improving, which is good. So maybe just getting them into that rhythm and getting them used to it to see more improvement on their part. But overall they seem good to me.”

Paul provided PCSB members with a preview of student enrollment in the state’s two statewide virtual public charter schools. In the previous school year, the state’s public charter school system had 2,270 students. While official enrollment for the 2024-2025 school year won’t be confirmed until Oct. 1, projected student enrollment for this fall is approximately 3,300 students, with 80% of students enrolled in the two statewide virtual charter schools.

“Again, this is informal and with about 80% of students in two virtual schools, it continues to grow at a very impressive rate and continues to be an extremely popular option for parents in our state,” Paul said.

Approved student enrollment determines the amount of public funding charter schools receive for the following school year. While charter schools are considered public schools in the same way as a district-run K-12 school, charter schools do not receive state funding to the same extent as traditional district public schools.

The public charter school pilot program allows 99% of the per-pupil funding in the state school aid fund formula to follow the student to the public charter school; however, this funding is paid out one year late in December of each year and is based on fall enrollment numbers that are not finalized until October of each year.

PCSB also approved a budget proposal for the fiscal year 2026 general revenue budget, which begins in July 2025. The budget proposal, which will be included in the state Department of Education budget proposal that the next governor will present to legislators in 2025, keeps the PCSB budget steady at $3.1 million.

The PCSB budget consists of three funding sources: federal funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education’s Expanding Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools program, which awarded PCSB $12.2 million over five years last year; the West Virginia Charter School Incentive Fund, which is used to help with the start-up costs of public charter schools and has not yet been funded by the Legislature; and a $3.1 million operational budget approved Thursday.

Wednesday was the first day of school for Clarksburg Classical Academy, the latest public charter school to open in Charles Town, where the MECCA Business Learning Institute will begin in the fall of 2025.

PCSB also received an application last month for Wisdom Academy, which is looking to open a K-12 public charter school in the Morgantown area. The school will start as a K-6 school and add a new grade each year. PCSB staff will begin an interview process with Wisdom Academy representatives. This process will include a public forum and comment period and analysis of the application, and will provide the school with an opportunity to modify its application based on the analysis and public feedback.

Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox