Mountaineers, by literal definition, have to keep climbing.
Metaphorically, though, planting a flag at the top of the peak still doesn’t guarantee against an avalanche below.
That contradiction bore out in a study released Monday morning by WalletHub, a personal finance company that tracks quality-of-life metrics across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Said study, which charted the fortunes of U.S. public school systems over the past year, showed that while the Mountain State had the lowest dropout rate in the country during that span, it also finished near the bottom of the nation in terms of overall quality and benchmarks met.
Or, not met, in this case.
West Virginia came in 46th in the study, finishing above Louisiana, Alaska, Arizona, Oklahoma and New Mexico — which charted last.
Massachusetts had the No. 1 public school system in the country, according to the WalletHub parameters, followed by Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Wisconsin to round out the top five.
Overall, West Virginia didn’t fare much better in the study’s math score assessment (49) or reading (50), the study’s authors said.
The state was also the 47th worst in the nation for incidents of bullying in school.
Still, West Virginia in April found out it was fourth in the country for its pre-school offerings, according to an annual report compiled by the National Institute for Early Childhood Education Research, which is housed at Rutgers University.
The District of Columbia, Florida and Oklahoma were first, second and third in a study, respectively — and D.C. and Oklahoma also fared poorly in WalletHub’s overall assessment Monday.
Meanwhile, Monongalia County’s school district does do better academically than some of its neighbors.
Mon is shorn up both by its proximity to WVU, the state’s flagship university — and the academic generosity of its citizens, who regularly vote in the affirmative for an excess education levy that contributes substantially to district coffers.
Still, voters in the county just as overwhelmingly said no in May to a $142.6 bond measure that would have built the state’s first standalone school devoted solely to STEM — science, technology, engineering and math.
And all 55 districts are now dealing with charter schools, which are making their first forays here.
Christopher Lubienski, who directs Indiana University-Bloomington’s Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, said what happens outside of the four walls of the classroom is just as important — and maybe more so.
“Despite what we might hope, school is only a relatively small part of the equation, and in-classroom factors even less,” the director said.
“School factors are a unique area where policy can have a more-direct impact,” he continued.
“That is, it is hard for policymakers to leverage change in family structure, parenting practices, family support for learning … but they can bring in better teaching and curricula.”
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