FAYETTEVILLE — The latest WESTEST scores reveal that almost two-thirds of Fayette County’s schools are still not meeting state-established testing standards.

Seven of 19 Fayette County schools met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the 2011-12 school year, the same number as in the year previous. The percentage jumped slightly, from 30 to 37 percent, based on the closure of one high school.

No high school in the county made AYP this year, compared to one last year.

“I think the basic message there was marginal improvement, and that’s positive, but we’re improving at the same rate as the rest of the state. We have academic and graduation rate needs that we need to improve at a faster rate,” says Fayette County Schools Superintendent Keith Butcher.

“We certainly have our work to do in reading, math, and graduation rate. Our one positive note was that attendance rates are very good.”

Statewide, 39 percent of high schools and 59 percent of schools overall met AYP standards. Three factors — attendance and graduation rates, participation rates, and academic test scores — are weighed when determining whether a student or school makes AYP.

Graduation rates at the county’s high schools remain low. Only Meadow Bridge High School, with a graduation rate of 95 percent, passed muster.

Next highest was Valley, with 74 percent. Fayetteville High School, the lowest-scoring in this area, only graduated 66 percent of students in 2011-12.

Fayette County’s new associate superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Dr. Mary Lu McCorkle, presented the results to the county Board of Education at its meeting on Tuesday evening.

Other take-aways from her printed report included the following:

— The following schools made AYP for school year 2011-12: Danese Elementary, Divide Elementary, Gatewood Elementary, Gauley Bridge Elementary, Meadow Bridge Elementary, Ansted Middle, and Nuttall Middle. Danese and Nuttall have since closed.

— Thirty-nine percent of Fayette County students are proficient in reading, and only 36 percent in math.

— Elementary schools demonstrated high attendance rates, ranging from 93 to almost 100 percent.

— Fifteen of 19 schools increased their math scores from last year. The reading scores of eight schools increased, and 11 decreased.

— Danese Elementary (now closed) and Gatewood Elementary stood out slightly in math, both with 49 percent proficiency. In reading, the seven top schools clustered in the low- to mid-40s.

Next year, the cutoff point for making AYP jumps tremendously, by 78 percent in the case of high school reading scores, for example.

Analyzing trends over time is difficult, since the standards have risen and fallen significantly over the years. The percentage of schools making AYP, predictably, tracks how high or low the standards are.

For example, in 2009, 64 percent of Fayette County schools made AYP. The following year, standards were lowered and more schools (79 percent) made AYP. In 2011 standards jumped dramatically and only 35 percent of schools successfully met the objectives. Standards stayed the same this year, as did the number of schools meeting AYP.

“While this assessment system might not be perfect, it’s what we have,” says McCorkle.

For now, anyway. West Virginia is transitioning into a “growth model” of assessment, where students, teachers, and schools will be judged on improvement over time and in comparison with each other.

At Tuesday’s meeting, board member Leon Ivey said he hears reports that in some cases students are not being taught the content they need to do well on the test.

“My concern is at the end of the day, if (students) are not getting the information they need, when do we hold (teachers) accountable?” he asked.

McCorkle says the data reveals, down to the level of the classroom, how teachers are doing, and that follow-up with specific instructors is performed when scores raise concerns.

“We have some specific teachers teaching specific content that carried an entire school,” says McCorkle.

Butcher says next year a new teacher evaluation system will calculate performance based partially on student test performance.

Ivey also commented that smaller schools tend to make AYP and “look better on paper” because they are accountable for fewer students and “subcells” that break the data down by ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and special needs. Schools must achieve AYP in every subcell to meet objectives overall.

For example, testing begins in third grade, so some elementary schools only count 40 or 50 students for AYP. With fewer students, it’s easier to target those who need help.

McCorkle says the growth model will take care of some of that skewing. And as it is, Butcher says when administrators evaluate the data, they look less at whether a school made AYP and more at what the data looks like when it’s unpacked by subcell, classroom, etc.

The public can explore the recent scores in depth online at http://wveis.k12.wv.us/nclb/pub.

—E-mail: cmoore@register-herald.com