By Stephen Smoot
The 21st century has increasingly evolved into the data century. Everything from baseball team formation to school success gets judged increasingly by the numbers. While numbers do reflect some truths, they also may hide others. Numbers do not allow for explanations of complex issues that can create stiff challenges for any organization – especially a public school system.
For the 2023-24 school year, as officials explain, the numbers for Hardy County Schools in many ways create a false perception.
Two main sources provide statistical information and surface analysis of Hardy County Schools’ performance in the past school year.
The West Virginia Department of Education provides every year what they call the “balanced scorecard.” It measures a number of metrics in academics, attendance, graduation, post-graduation, and more. The balanced scorecard has four categories, does not meet standard, partially meets standard, meets standard, and exceeds standard.
Different metrics are shown on a continuum that shows exactly where the school performs in each category. For the elementary schools and Moorefield Middle School, the categories of mathematics achievement and mathematics progress illustrate that the school test results currently do not meet standards, but come very close. English learning, however, meets standards while behavior exceeds them.
The combined scores of the two county high schools show that the County barely misses achieving the “partially meets standard” metrics in English/Language Arts and Mathematics.
Another popular school system assessment website is Schooldigger. This online site has no connection with the state or local school system, but ranks both systems and individual schools based on results-based statistics. They ranked Hardy County 49th of 55 state districts and criticized the system for the low performance of what they referred to as “Hispanic” students.
This leads into one of the strongest challenges faced by Hardy County Schools. Approximately 10 percent of students in the system learned English as a second language – or not at all.
“We have the highest percentage of EL kids in the State of West Virginia,” shared Hardy County Schools Superintendent Sheena Van Meter. While a recent count set the number at 135, Van Meter explained that the number has since expanded to 171. Elsewhere in the Potomac Highlands counties, Hampshire has six, Mineral nine, Grant 19, Tucker two, and Pendleton zero.
In terms of sheer numbers, Kanawha (154), Monongalia (298), Berkeley (650), and Jefferson (359) have more than Hardy, but also boast significantly higher student populations and county school budgets. Hardy County also lacks a school levy, which leaves the system reliant on less resources.
“We value these kids,” emphasizes Van Meter, who also added “it’s a blessing that we have that kind of diversity.”
The scale of the diversity that she cites, however, appears more reminiscent of counties in Northern Virginia than elsewhere in West Virginia. Hardy County must serve students who speak one of 16 different languages outside of English. Even that does not tell the full story. While Schooldigger’s analysis knocked Hardy County on achievement of “Hispanic” children, even that term misleads.
The cultures of various Spanish speaking countries vary at least as much, if not more than the different nations of Europe. Spanish spoken in countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico differ much more widely than the differences between British and American English – almost to the point of being incomprehensible to each other in some cases.
As Jennifer Strawderman, assistant superintendent and Title III director explains, many students come from different countries, such as Ecuador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Some of these even speak a native tribal language instead of Spanish.
Other languages spoken as their primary tongue in the Hardy County Schools system include Burmese, Vietnamese, Amharic, Malayalam, Tigrigna, Haitian Creole, French, Chin, Korean, K’iche, Mam, Q’eqchi, Burundi, Honduran Lenca, and Russian. Of course, Russians use the entirely different Cyrillic alphabet, as opposed to the Latin letter that form the basis of English, Spanish, and most others.
Van Meter said that the influx of rich cultural diversity “really is a gift, but it’s a challenge.”
Hardy County gets some state and federal funds in support, but not enough. Strawderman stated that the system “is blessed with four caring people in the EL world” to help. Pilgrims’ Pride also provides assistance by paying for translation technology to help to facilitate communication as part of what Van Meter called “ a really strong partnership.”.
Even the list of native languages only scratches the surface of the issue because most of these children come from cultures with tremendous differences than their current home. Strawderman related that some spent time in refugee camps, coming with no birth certificate, English language skills, or educational paperwork, but many do carry with them the trauma of living in that environment or possibly worse.
Many come from places of high crime, social disruption, or even violent conflict. Strawderman explained that “they often are worried about their family members back home.” Quite a few come to Hardy County in their mid to late teens, making the adjustment to an American system much more challenging.
While these complexities are novel to the Potomac Highlands, they are not new to West Virginia. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad brought in Irish and German labor in the mid 1800s. Between the late 1890s and just after World War I, coal mining areas in southern and north central West Virginia attracted immigrants from all over Southern and Eastern Europe. They arrived in small towns to live and work together with each other and also the native born whose families arrived generations before.
Numbers used by the State of West Virginia and online assessment sites fail to explain the depth of the task faced by Hardy County teachers, administrators, and support staff every day. These children must take the same tests and meet the same standards as native born students for Hardy County to show the same numbers as higher ranked schools across the state.
Hardy County Schools has worked to address the needs of these students in different ways, although Van Meter states that the system should look at ways “to do better.” Students are encouraged to share their stories of their mother countries, families, and cultures. Many receive strong encouragement to develop trade skills through career and technical education opportunities.
Also, as Strawderman said “the relationship piece is huge.” Students who come from foreign lands seek each other out and create communities of mutual support within the schools.
More assistance comes through the Communities in Schools program championed by Governor Jim Justice and First Lady Cathy Justice. This program seeks to help students from struggling households get their basic needs met, whether that be a friendly face to share problems with, a source of hygiene products, school supplies, or even food, or any number of different issues presented by at-risk children.
Communities in Schools works with all students with these types of needs. Among native born students, the dissolution of both the traditional or other two parent family households has contributed to a growing crisis. In the Mountain State, between 40 and 50 percent of grandparents currently play a significant or a complete role in raising one or more grandchildren.
Many other children find places to sleep or eat with whomever will take them in as their families struggle with drug or other issues.
Again, the State makes no differentiation in judging test result statistics between students who grow up in traditional settings versus those with complex and often critically damaging backgrounds.
Van Meter and Strawderman also cited another set of students who adversely affect metrics, even though they have found success and achieved in both school and life after graduation. In the category of post secondary achievement, or how many students go on to higher education, Hardy County comes close to meeting the standard set by the state.
Again, however, this metric places a higher value on attending colleges or universities, as opposed to opportunities such as workforce training or CTE programs in fields such as the trades, nursing and other medical roles, or other fields. It also does not recognize those who took skills learned in high school and applied them to acquiring good full time jobs in manufacturing, construction, or elsewhere.
A large number of Hardy County students perform well on vocational tests, such as the NOCTI assessment for career and technical education or the ASVAB test used by the United States Armed Forces to gauge the quality of potential enlistees. While many from rural West Virginia find fulfilling and good paying careers in the trades, other fields served by CTE, or the military, the metrics do not reflect these paths as achievement worth measuring.
Van Meter explained that “we have a lot of great kids who don’t go to college,” yet find success and achievement, especially locally, “and we celebrate that.”
Many of these students find extra enrichment through participation in various clubs and organizations. Future Farmers of America and 4H teach how to work together on projects, develop leadership, communications, social, and other “soft” skills, while preparing the next generation to participate in Hardy County’s top industry.
Middle school robotics clubs teach in-demand skills while also emphasizing the same features as FFA and 4H. The students work hard, develop teamwork, and get to travel to other parts of the country they might otherwise not get to see.
Strawderman emphasized that the caring for all students of all countries of origin does not stop with the teachers and CIS coordinators. She stated that the school cooks, custodians, secretaries, aides, and all support staff work hard to give each student the best school experience possible.
“Our kids, I’d put them up against students anywhere in the rest of West Virginia,” Van Meter said, adding that “they’re smart, they’re hardworking. They can show what they can do on a standardized test, but they are also successful with our programs and opportunities.”
In other words, Hardy County Schools is required by the State of West Virginia to prepare students for tests, but their mission is to prepare them for life.
