By Stephen Smoot
This week, the canary sang in the figurative state educational coal mine. It did not tweet softly, but opened up Pavarottiesque and bellowed.
“This is pathetic,” West Virginia State Board of Education President Paul Hardesty told West Virginia Metro News.
The pathos of which Hardesty spoke referred to the State Board declaring a state of emergency in Berkeley County Schools. Action was deemed necessary after a site visit to Martinsburg North Middle School.
According to a release from the West Virginia Department of Education, State school officials voted to make the declaration on May 8. They named the school, along with 20 others across the state, as one “identified for Comprehensive Support and Improvement” in the 202-23 school year. Such schools perform lower than any others in the state.
Categorized as low performing, the school also received a site visit from State officials on April 17. Specific reasons for the visit included that only 53 percent of students felt safe. Across the state, 80 percent generally report feeling safe at school in surveys. The school, as of April, also racked up 23 Title IX violations and saw 160 fights take place.
Academically, the school fared even worse. Less than six percent of students demonstrated mathematical proficiency and just under a quarter showed proficiency in reading.
West Virginia Metro News also reported that State Department of Education Accountability Officer Jeff Kelley shared observations on student and faculty behavior. He said that “in the majority of classroom observations the team described the environment (as) chaotic, disruptive, and occasionally hostile.”
Students refused instructions to go to class, hit each other and cursed without consequence, and generally wandered around unsupervised.
The West Virginia State Legislature considered, but failed to pass, a bill crafted by state senator and educator Amy Grady. It would have given classroom teachers much more authority to remove problem students.
Grady told West Virginia Metro News last February that “teachers are burned out because they have to deal with behaviors that you wouldn’t be expected to deal with in other professions.”
West Virginia has started implementing steps to address some of the underlying issues. The Community In Schools program addresses basic needs, especially from socially disadvantaged or dysfunctional family or caregiver situations. These categorizations show higher levels of discipline and suspension than others, according to a state report released last fall.
The State also uses the three-tier system of working with problem students. Those exhibiting certain behaviors are considered tier one and can function in the classroom setting. Tier two students must be removed occasionally, sometimes for mental health breaks before issues rise to disruption. Tier three do not function well in the traditional classroom environment most of the time and need special support or intervention.
That all said, putting together long-term solutions do not help teachers who are overwhelmed and outgunned in classes now. One can feel empathy for marginalized students, but that does not protect the rights of those who deserve to both teach and learn without threats or obstructions.
And meanwhile, schools such as Martinsburg North Middle continue to churn out entire classes with little or no educational attainment.
If a wealthy system like Berkeley County with all the resources at their disposal see these kinds of problems, more cash-strapped counties must struggle even more.
It’s time to restore order in the classroom so that teachers can teach and children can learn.