MasteryPrep Supports SAT Reading Proficiency Growth at West Virginia School District

Like many school districts nationwide, Jackson County Schools in West Virginia must meet annual accountability benchmarks set forth by the state. Therefore, the district “constantly looks at data and makes decisions based on the data we receive,” says JCS Superintendent William Hosaflook.

Over the last three years, Jackson County Schools—a public school district in Ripley, West Virginia—has discovered that the more performance data they can access, the more successful they can be when it comes to preparing students for the SAT. And district leaders say their investment in data and test-prep tools has been paying off through their partnership with MasteryPrep, which started in the 2022-2023 school year.

Jackson County Schools has gradually improved 11th-grade reading proficiency from 45.64% in 2021 to 60.67% in 2024, according to West Virginia Department of Education data. This growth in reading proficiency has translated to juniors improving their SAT scores on Reading and Writing, with JCS achieving the state Education Department’s “Meets Standard” scaled score range. This means they are averaging at least a 470 ELA score on the standardized test.

With more than 4,000 students in Grades PreK-12, Jackson County Schools includes two high schools: Ripley High School and Ravenswood High School. Across its high school curriculum, JCS implements MasteryPrep’s Practice Testing & Analysis for the Digital SAT (which includes Study Hall) and Bell Ringers for the Digital SAT®.

“We are very data-oriented in the county, and [data tracking] was a missing component that our high schools did not have. MasteryPrep brought that to us,” Hosaflook says. “MasteryPrep brought us a data source that we can use to drive bell ringers in classrooms and statistically significant weaknesses that we can isolate and improve upon through classroom skills.”

% of Students Considered Proficient in Reading and Writing by West Virginia DOE Standards

	Ripley High School	Ravenswood High School
2021-2022	53%	43%
2022-2023	51%	62%
2023-2024	59%	64%

Prep early and prep often; that’s how test prep works at Jackson County Schools. The road to success starts in freshman year, as every September, the 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-grade classes take the MasteryPrep digital SAT practice test as a benchmark.

Ripley High School Principal Luke Swiney admits that giving the freshman class an 11th-grade-level test, like the SAT, was first met with a little bit of skepticism. But the mindset was, “We want to practice like we play,” Swiney says.

“We get the kids exposed to that content early, identify the weaknesses early, and we use the scores and their performance as benchmarks,” Swiney says. “[The scores] identify glaring weaknesses. And from that point on, it’s hit the ground running.”

With MasteryPrep’s Practice Testing & Analysis for the Digital SAT, schools get instantaneous score reports and data-performance tools following completion of the practice test, including:

Overview Report: Performance by subject area, including composite and scale scores
Student Score Report: Provides practice test score analysis, recommendations, and an answer key in an easy-to-read, one-page format
Subject Breakdown Report: Analyzes skills that are tested on required assessments
Recommendations: Gives teachers recommendations based on MasteryPrep’s extensive research of test items and real student performance data points
Test-Taking Skills Report: Quantifies students’ relative strengths and weaknesses in seven essential test-taking skills, including time management and process of elimination
Threshold Report: Reports on how many students are above or below target scores
Item Analysis: Shows how many students selected each answer choice for a test item
Answer Maps: Enables you to view the answers and choices each student selected
Explanation Videos: Allows students to follow along and strengthen critical skills

Following the benchmark practice test, Swiney says, he can then record the score data for each class to track each student’s progress. School leaders examine strengths and areas for improvement and work with teachers to deliver pertinent instruction materials throughout the year based on students’ needs.

Part of that instruction is delivered through MasteryPrep’s Bell Ringers for the Digital SAT—short, daily warm-up exercises that reinforce that essential skills measured on the assessment. Each subject includes explanations for every question, and teachers can share questions electronically. Bell ringers provide:

Targeted practice and comprehensive coverage of digital SAT content
Built-in tools such as a timer feature
Practice items that match the skills taught in MasteryPrep curriculum books
A digital platform for easy classroom integration
Progress tracking through question types and content areas

A second SAT practice test benchmark is given in January to enable school administrators to further assess strengths and weaknesses before the real SAT is administered in April.

“We have PLCs (Professional Learning Communities) with teachers once a month. But after the January test, we have a big meeting to see if we have made any gains in what our weaknesses were in September,” Swiney says. “We are experiencing growth throughout the year.”

Over the last year at Ripley, English section proficiency improved 8% on the MasteryPrep digital SAT practice tests, Swiney says.

"We are very data-oriented in the county, and [data tracking] was a missing component that our high schools did not have. MasteryPrep brought that to us."

William Hosaflook, Jackson County Schools Superintendent

Beyond the data, though, Swiney says MasteryPrep’s solutions have changed student attitudes toward test prep for the better.

“We have seen a culture shift over the last few years. These kids care, and they check those scores,” Swiney says. “They want to know how they did, and they talk about it with each other, and they talk about it with their teachers, and they talk about it with us, the administrators, which to me is cool. I want them to be able to look at their numbers and have productive conversations on how they can be better. I think that’s a huge part of it.”

Hosaflook agrees, noting that the buy-in among students, teachers, parents, and administrators, along with the year-round data tools that help hold Jackson County Schools accountable, are delivering growth across the district.

“The systematic approach of the entire district is using data to drive decisions,” Hosaflook says. “That’s what it all comes down to. That’s why we chose MasteryPrep, because we didn’t have a data source for high school for benchmarking. We believe that our scores have increased because of MasteryPrep’s data analysis for students and teachers.”

Unpaid testimonial. Individual results may vary, and testimonials are not claimed to represent typical results. Digital SAT score average and gain data are courtesy of MasteryPrep clients and based on year-over-year test data for the same cohort. All testimonials are real participants, and may not reflect the typical user’s experience, and are not intended to represent or guarantee that anyone will achieve the same or similar results.

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MasteryPrep Supports SAT Reading Proficiency Growth at West Virginia School District

% of Students Considered Proficient in Reading and Writing by West Virginia DOE Standards

Explore MasteryPrep Test-Prep Solutions for the Digital SAT

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