Ten Mingo County public schools made adequate yearly progress (AYP) during the 2009-2010 school year but four other schools failed to achieve for various reasons.

That's the report from Karen Canterbury, County Test Coordinator for Mingo County schools, who explains the situation as test standards increase.

In order to make AYP, schools had to meet the required percent of students scoring at mastery or higher in reading and math on the statewide achievement tests.

Canterbury noted that at least 95 percent of the students had to participate in those two tests. She said the attendance rate for elementary and middle schools had to be at least 90 percent, and the graduation rate for high schools had to be at least 80 percent.

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Schools had to meet criteria for their total student group and also for subgroups, such as special education and economically disadvantaged students. Mingo's 10 schools that made adequate yearly progress were Williamson High, Tug Valley High, Riverside Elementary, Burch Elementary, Gilbert Elementary, Kermit Area K-8, Lenore K-8, Matewan Middle, Matewan Elementary and Dingess Elementary.

The report for Mingo County shows that Burch High and Matewan High Schools did not make AYP because the graduation rates fell below 80 percent. However, it noted that both schools made adequate yearly progress on all other criteria, which included achievement test scores in reading and math for the total student group and for all sub-groups in which there were at least 50 students. Both schools also exceeded the required percentage of students who participated in achievement testing.

Gilbert High School and Williamson Middle School also did not make AYP. Canterbury explained that, for both schools, the percentage of economically disadvantaged students who achieved mastery was too low. At Gilbert High, the problem was in math only, whereas at Williamson Middle, the problem was in reading/language arts only. Both schools met all other requirements for adequate yearly progress.

As a remedy for the situation and to assist schools in the identified areas of deficiency, the Mingo County school system has put into place academic coaches at the secondary level to offer instructional support.

Additionally, to improve graduation rates, an attendance officer has been employed to work with parents and students to overcome potential barriers which may hinder students from obtaining a diploma.

Canterbury said the West Virginia Department of Education and the Mingo County Board of Education are committed to providing West Virginia students with the knowledge they need to be successful in a global society. The rigor of the curriculum has been increased to match national and international standards, and performance skills, including problem solving, collaboration, technology literacy, communications and critical thinking, have been incorporated.

To provide help with the more rigorous school work, the state Department of Education has developed a parent website, http://wvde.state.wv.us/parents21, to provide resources that can be used at home.

The test coordinator said, in addition to increased rigor in the classroom, the scores that a student had to achieve to pass the statewide achievement test, WESTEST 2, also were increased in 2010. For example, on the math test, eighth graders had to score 624 points to achieve mastery in 2009. In 2010, they were required to score 651 points to achieve mastery.

All seven of the Title I schools in Mingo County made AYP in 2010. No schools in this county are required to offer school choice, nor do they face any other federal sanctions.

It is understood that Mingo County will use the recently released data to analyze students' academic strengths and weaknesses and, in turn, develop specific improvement initiatives.