West Virginia Education: Failing to Help the Most Needy

It was recently reported by a study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's entitled "How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children?" and based on the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress scores and Advanced Placement testing data that West Virginia scored a “D-“ when it came to educating our poorest and most needy children.

This is of course absolutely no shock.

You can also bank on the idea that while hands will wring and protest lodged against the study itself, nothing will be done about it.

After all, West Virginia is a state that despite being the home of many poor rural student would be the first person in their family to go to college, designed a “scholarship” program to reward those who already had a great deal going for them.

I write of course of the PROMISE Scholarship program, a program to provide in state students, who reach a certain level on the various sections of the ACT or SAT test and leave high school with a 3.0 GPA in core academic subjects. The PROMISE was presented as a way to reward “good” students.

It is nothing but bunk that is little more than a back door tax cut for the upper middle class.

In his many comments on the subject, former Governor Bob Wise implied three major goals for the Promise Scholarship: Reward good students who “work hard and play by the rules,” reduce student loan burden, and keep West Virginia students in state after graduation.

Does the Promise reward good students? Both the ACT and College Board have issued statements against the use of the test as a benchmark for scholarship. While the tests are particularly good at the extremes of the scale, and therefore very useful tools in determining English and math class placement, the fact is that the scoring system can vary greatly with out any real measurable difference in academic ability. In fact, the SAT can vary as much as 125 points and the ACT by 1.43 to 2.20 points. While this variance represents no real difference in ability, it can result in a difference of thousands of dollars in scholarships. I believe that we do a disservice to both the ACT and the College Board and a greater disservice to the people of West Virginia when we misuse these tests for purposes for which they where not intended and are ill-suited. The Promise has operated as a poorly constructed fishing net, allowing many quality students to go unrewarded.

Does the Promise reduce loan debt? Certainly for those students who receive the scholarship, but that begs the question; what type of student receives the scholarship?
While there is some doubt about their ability to predict overall academic ability, the ACT and SAT can highlight certain educational disparities and level of preparedness. Both tests acknowledge that there is a direct correlation between family income and test score. Therefore it may seem that granting scholarships on the basis of these financial disparities, especially in a state so very poor, is a little misguided. For example, let us look at Webster County, which has the lowest per capita income in West Virginia, according the West Virginia Bureau of Employment Programs. Individuals there earn an average of $13,183 per year. (Per Capita Income or PCI) Only 9.67% of 2001 Webster County high school graduates were granted a Promise Scholarship. In the state’s wealthiest county, Kanawha ($27,508, PCI) 22.4% of the students received a Promise Scholarship. Do we really believe the kids in Charleston are twice as smart than those in Upper Glade? Or is it that those who live in the State Capitol have twice the advantages of those who live in a poor rural county? Instead of rewarding students for great achievement in a fair determination of relative ability and commitment, we are in effect punishing children for not being as fortunate as others.

We do know what type of student needs to take a loan; typically those from poor, working and lower middle-class families who are not poor enough to qualify for state and federal grants. According to Figure 1 these are the types of families least likely to receive a Promise Scholarship. We may have to wait a few more years for definitive proof, to determine the effect on loan burden, but there are doubts so long as those most likely to earn a scholarship are the ones least like to need a loan.

The new individual test score requirements for the Promise, which requires not only a 21 ACT composite, but also a 20 on all subject tests will exacerbate the problems of income disparity. With a statewide average of only a little over 16 on the Math section of the ACT it is unlikely that the promise will be in the grasp of the typical and otherwise deserving West Virginia high school senior. It cannot be ignored that even in the counties with the best Promise award rate, only about 1/3 are gaining any benefit from the program.

Finally a consideration for the third goal of the promise; to keep our students in West Virginia after graduation. For seven years I had the privilege of teaching about 50 of the state’s best and brightest high school students at a weeklong seminar. I always asked how many wished to stay in state after college and a strong majority always raises their hand. When I ask how think they must leave to find a career, another vast majority appears.

Our students do not want to leave this most beautiful and peaceful of states, but they often find themselves forced to do so. While other states have found success in retaining graduates by simply enticing them to remain in state for college, those states possessed a greater, more diverse economic base than West Virginia. I am afraid that due to the continued lack of professional and technology based jobs in West Virginia, the Promise will become a free job training program for our sister states.

While this is not the venue for discussing West Virginia’s economic development, it is a place to acknowledge that while the goals of the Promise are laudable, the only responsible question is if the current program matrix is actually doing the job we need it to do. I would argue that this is not the case and that the program, like most young efforts at social policy, needs considerable upgrading. In order to affect the former Governor’s goal in a more efficient and more socially just way, I would suggest the following: Make the Promise and West Virginia Higher Education Grant Program one unified program: the WV Promise Grant Program if you will.

Grant tuition and regular fees to any WV high school graduate with at least a 3.0 high school GPA in core courses, who then enrolls in a West Virginia college, university or community college. Private colleges would participate much as they do now. This will hopefully correct the problem of income disparity attached to the SAT and ACT.

If students stay in West Virginia up to two years after graduation (with an exemption for graduate or professional school) then the grant will remain just that. However if the student should leave the state in that time, the grant will become a loan to be repaid with a reasonable rate of interest. The combined, but not reduced budgets of the Promise and West Virginia Higher Education Grant Program would be used to make interest payments on the loans (as opposed to paying for the entire program “up front”) only having to pay full tuition and fees if the student completes all program requirements. Those that move out of state will continue to help their home state by repaying the program. The requirement to stay in state for two years will create a base population, educated and expectant, that will demand economic development and offer a ready made and talented workforce.

It should be stressed that these suggestions are just that. It would be the height of arrogance to assume that the answers to such a complicated issue lay with the confines of one mind, or even one isolated group. The best solutions are inspired by dynamic interactions of diverse stakeholders. I am firm in my conviction that should such a discussion take place that we can build a socially responsible program that will make college an option for all of our students and be a model for the rest of our country.

Sources:
SAT Factsheet, National Center for Fair and Open Testing, http://www.fairtest.org/facts/satfact.htm

ACT Factsheet, National Center for Fair and Open Testing, http://www.fairtest.org/facts/act.html

West Virginia County Profiles, WV Bureau of Employment Programs, http://www.state.wv.us/bep/lmi/cntyprof/

County Boards of Education Public School Headcount Enrollment by Grade 2000-01, West Virginia Department of Education, http://wvde.state.wv.us/

Total Awarded Applicants by County of High School and High School, 7/8/2002, WV Higher Education Policy Commission, http://www.hepc.wvnet.edu/