Timothy C. Miller, M.D.,
F.A.C.S.
201 East High Street * Kingwood, WV 26537
tmiller@mountain.net
Phone 329-3830 * FAX 329-3301
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Material on this page consists of studies done while I was a member of the Preston County Board of Education. I am no longer on the BOE. I'll go ahead and leave this stuff up. Doesn't seem to be hurting anything...
Have a question or comment? Send E-Mail to tmiller@mountain.net.
Scroll down the page for links and commentary on....
Preston County School Comprehensive Facilities Plan
Block schedules vs traditional schedules
Open enrollment
Consolidated vs community schools
Standardized testing
and more.....
Preston County Schools Comprehensive Facilities Plan, 2000-2010
Updated 4/8/00
Enrollment requirements to meet SBA economies of scale,
school site minimum size guidelines, and
Preston County Schools school site size analysis
Site Specific Analysis (draft copy, work in progress)
Aurora School
Bruceton School
Central Preston Middle School
South Preston Middle School
Terra Alta/East Preston
West Preston Middle School
Selected Summary of Site Specific Analyses
Issues that come up from time to time ......
High School Class Schedules - "Block" verses "Traditional"
In 1995-96, Preston High switched to a 4 X 4 Block Schedule format, as many high schools across America have done.
With the 2000-01 the Preston High has switched back to a "modified block," which more closely resembles a traditional 7 period day in many respects. There is some debate on the optimum way to run a schedule in a high school. This is not just a local issue, but rather a nationwide debate. You may follow this link to some Observations Concerning Block Schedules.
Open Enrollment
In that a County Board of Education is
free to send its school busses anywhere it pleases into a neighboring county and pick up such
students as it wishes for transportation to its
schools, then the concept of a school "district" is meaningless. And, as we know, this is the
situation that has existed for several years in our county.
I don't think this is as much an issue as a historical curiosity. I certainly don't think
anything is to be gained by rubbing more salt into these wounds. However, I DO think that the
dissolution of the school district boundary is a BAD idea for several reasons. I wrote a couple
of letters to the State Board of Education on this issue several years ago, and you may follow this link to read these letters.
I think that sooner or later the State Board of Education will find its chickens coming home to
roost on their position of "no such thing as a district boundary," and they will need to revisit
this issue. What do you think?
Consolidated School or Community School?
In 1988-89, the public school consolidation issue reached a peak in Preston County. Many
community schools advocates championed their cause with the aid of published
works of educators who advocate "school conservation" as opposed to "school consolidation."
At that time I studied some of this literature.
You may follow this link to my analysis (a deconstruction, if you
will) of one such work, Education
in Rural America, A Reassessment of Convention Wisdom, edited by Jonathan P. Sher. I
would have thought that this book would be considered terribly dated by now, but instead
find that it is still often quoted in the "consolidation vs community schools" debate. I wrote this
paper several years ago, and perhaps I missed the point at the time. A major theme of this book
is that "rural education" or "small school education" is different from "urban" education - that children
in small communities do not need the same type of education as children who attend larger schools.
Perhaps this book is really a lesson for the school conservator who would wish to have all the
"bell and whistles" of a large school incorporated into a small school. We wish for schools
with well stocked libraries, computer labs, a wide variety of course offerings, modern facilities, and a
complete menu of extra-curricular activities -- and of a small size to boot. While we wish to have our cake and
eat it too, one of the writers in this book asserts that "...
everyone involved with rural schools recognize two things: first, that there will continue to be
problems in rural schools; and second, that it is probably better for rural schools to live with their own inherent problems
than with problems artificially created by transplanting a suburban model."
Class Conflict in Rural Education: A Case Study of Preston County, West Virginia
This is the name of a chapter in Sher's book (see above). As the school consolidation controversy raged in Preston County in 1975 and 1976, a citizens group was formed named "EAP" - Equality for all Prestonians. A gentleman by the name of Dr. Timothy Weaver, Ph.D, arrived on the scene to serve as a "point man" of sorts to champion the anti-consolidation cause. Many remember Dr. Weaver, but few may know that after his work here was finished he returned to his lair and wrote the above named chapter which appears in the book Education in Rural America, A Reassessment of Conventional Wisdom, edited by Jonathan P. Sher. You may follow this link to my review of that chapter. I find myself in complete disagreement with and rather insulted by his assessment and wonder if others share my view.
Standardized test scores in Preston County, 1977 - 2003.
(Updated 8/12/03)
I have tabulated the results of the county standardized test scores for Total Basic Skills from 1977 to the present to see if there are any trends over the past 20 or so years.
I wanted to see if any of the changes in the school system such as provision of duty-free planning periods, broader
implementation of special education programs, failure of the excess levy, consolidation of high schools, changes in administration, etc, have made any
obvious impact on the test scores as compared to other counties in West Virginia.
My analysis focuses on Preston County test scores relative to the West Virginia state average for the given years in order to compare our performance with a more similar reference group, and correct for the "norm creep" phenomenon and the "Lake Wobegon Effect" (where all children are above average). Interestingly, while Preston County SAT-9 scores are consistantly above the national norm reference group, we generally lag a few points below the West Virginia State averages.
You may follow this link to the test score summary.
If anyone has any observations on this issue, I would be happy if you would share them with me.
IGOs and Stanford Testing in Preston County Schools
In the 1999-00 school year, questions have been raised concerning the use of the Stanford 9 examination in Preston County Schools, and the use of the Instructional Goals and Objectives (IGOs) from the West Virginia Department of Education as the basis for curriculum.
This commentary attempts to address some of those issues.
What about our Enrollment Figures for the past few years?
There are some who may not be aware of the significant decline in enrollments in Preston County Schools. This is a critical issue, as
state funding for the schools is directly tied to enrollment. As county enrollments diminish, so does the level of state funding.
The following chart summarizes enrollment data for the various elementary school districts in Preston County over the past 30 years. I chose to look at Grades 1-5, because there was no kindergarten in 1968, and the 6th grades are no longer in some of the elementary schools. The elementary school district areas have pretty much remained unchanged over the past 30 years.
Enrollments in Grades One through Five, Preston County Elementary Schools
| 1965-68
(Four yr avg)
Grades 1-5 |
1975-78
(Four yr avg)
Grades 1-5 |
1985-88
(Four yr avg)
Grades 1-5 | 1998
Grades 1-5 |
% Decrease
1968-1998
Grades 1-5 | (1998-99)
Grades 1-5 | (1999-00)
Grades 1-5 |
|---|
|
Aurora |
194 |
157 |
162 |
114 |
41 | 103 |
109 |
| Bruceton |
260 |
247 |
282 |
253 |
3 | 247 | 251 |
Fellowsville
Newburg |
345 |
280 |
249 |
120 |
65 | 133 | 126 |
Kingwood
Albright |
694 |
655 |
539 |
477 |
31 | 463 | 460 |
| Rowlesburg |
266 |
184 |
131 |
98 |
63 | 89 | 83 |
|
Terra Alta |
336 |
318 |
306 |
243 |
28 | 253 | 239 |
Tunnelton
Denver |
355 |
276 |
179 |
174 |
51 | 178 | 167 |
| Valley |
565 |
522 |
510 |
395 |
30 | 368 | 349 |
| Preston County |
3015 |
2630 |
2356 |
1874 |
38 | 1834 | 1784 |
Total
Enrollment |
6,529
Grades 1-12 |
6,198
Grades 1-12 |
5,459
Grades 1-12 |
4,693
Grades 1-12
PK-12 = 5,132 |
28 | 4,651
Grades 1-12
PK-12=5,097 |
4,499
Grades 1-12
PK-12=4,991 |
| As the data indicates, enrollment declines in Grades 1-5 are most marked in the southern elemenatry districts (Fellowsville, Newburg, Rowlesburg, Aurora, and Tunnelton) with enrollment declines of 41-65% in these 5 grade levels in the past 30 years. The "middle districts" along the Route 7 east-west corridor (Kingwood-Albright, Terra Alta, Valley) have seen an enrollment decline of 28-31%, while the northern part of the county (Bruceton) has shown a stable enrollment.
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Open Mouth, Insert Foot
Other Websites I have done
WV-Mat -- The West Virginia Wrestling Page
This website has been online since 1996. If nothing else this site is an example of
the possibilities with Internet technology. While amateur wrestling in West Virginia may not be a topic which is on everybody's lips,
this web site has drawn together wrestling fans from across the state. There is broad exchange of ideas in the forum, features written by experts in the field, archives of difficult to find information, recognition of scholar athletes, and much much more.
Preston County Schools
email comments to tmiller@mountain.net
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Work in Progress - Rough work sheets
03comp1
03comp2
03comp3
04comp1
04comp2
2003-04 staffing
TAEP
CPMS
WPMS
SPMS
Bruceton
Total 6-8 consol
Consol West, Central, South, Rowlesburg 6-8
Counties with no excess levy
All Counties with or without levy
junklevy
04budget
levy3.pdf
careers.pdf
levydoc.pdf
levyflier.pdf
phonetip.pdf
precincts.pdf
votesummary.pdf
levy.ppt