MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Monongalia County School System announced that increases in state-mandated assessment scores were reported across the board for elementary, middle, and high school students.
County Schools Director of Assessment, Accountability, and School Counseling Courtney Crawford reported during the Monongalia County Board of Education’s regular meeting Tuesday that the West Virginia Summative Assessments taken during the second half of the 2024-25 school year reflected increases in math, reading, and science scores for grades 3-8. This was joined by 11th grade SAT preparation scores that topped all 55 county school systems in the state. The scores were from the West Virginia General Summative Assessment and the Dynamic Learning Maps Assessment taken in Spring 2025, with the PSAT taken in Fall 2024.
“What we’re excited to report is that we’ve seen a three percent growth in both reading and math from the previous school year,” said Crawford. “In addition to that, we’ve seen an eight percent increase in math since the pandemic, seven percent in reading, and five percent in science.”
According to Crawford, the summative assessment scores taken by Mon County students during the end of the 2024-25 school year showed that over sixty percent of test takers in grades 3-8 reflected a performance that either met or exceeded standards in reading. For math, just over 53 percent met or exceeded standards in performance, which exceeded the state average number of students in similar levels by just about ten percent. Students that were below or partially meeting the threshold also declined across the board, with less than a quarter of county students not meeting a threshold in math or reading.
“Over time, and this has been an ongoing trend, we’re seeing that our percentage of students at the two lower performance levels—those percentages are decreasing,” said Crawford. “And our percentages of students in the meets and exceeds the standard area are continuing to increase.”
For the 11th grade students assessed as part of the SAT School Day, Crawford reported that Monongalia County saw around 66 percent of test takers meet benchmarks for reading and writing, with students meeting benchmarks for math by almost double on a statewide level. This is separate from the average college readiness benchmarks that showed students reaching proficiency in reading and writing as well as math at a 10-point mark on an SAT scoring scale. Increases that were also reflective of the years since the COVID-19 pandemic-related closing, which caused drastic drops in test scores.
“So we’ve been looking at increases over time, and in our reading and writing benchmark, there was a four percent increase from last school year, but it’s nearly a ten percent increase in our students meeting that benchmark since 2023,” said Crawford.
Crawford also reported that in Mon County, 83 percent of high school students that participated in Advanced Placement classes received passing grades, exceeding the state average by almost 20 percent. This was also separate from the West Virginia Promise Scholarship aspect of the SAT School Day, where the 11th grade students had an average composite score of 1080, with just over 58 percent of the test takers meeting at least one indicator for scholarship eligibility. With statewide balanced scorecard numbers scheduled to be released within the next couple of months, there appears to be optimism about how they will look for students attending Monongalia County Schools.
“It’s our anticipation that those balanced scorecards will be released on, or by, the next state board meeting, which is October 8,” said Crawford. “And we’ll be excited to see what the data shows for Mon County Schools.”