CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A new national study praises West Virginia's education policies with an A grade, but gives the state's schoolchildren an F for classroom achievement.

Though the state is succeeding in setting high standards, students aren't yet achieving high academic marks, according to Education Week's "Quality Counts 2008" report released Wednesday.

Nationally, the state's eighth-graders rank 47th in math and 43rd in reading, while fourth-graders rank 40th in reading and math. Those rankings are based on cumulative student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test from 2003-2007.

Overall, the state's grade of B-minus topped the national average, a C. High marks in standards, assessment, accountability and the state's policy of financial equity provided a counterbalance to the low achievement numbers.

"West Virginia is very low-performing when you look at K-12 achievement, and that's not going to surprise a lot of people," said Christopher Swanson, one of the study's authors and director of the editorial project at the Education Research Center.

"Unfortunately, we have to be patient if we want to see wholesale and very visible improvements to achievement. It can happen, but it takes time."

In five years, West Virginia's schools may be substantially improved if they follow current policy mandates, Swanson said.

State Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine said improvements in NAEP scores should be seen even sooner.

Paine noted that the school board's high marks for educational policy were a result of more rigorous curriculum standards implemented after he took office in 2005. He also noted that higher state standards for students will go into effect in the fall of 2008.

"We have fixed the problem from our policy standpoint," Paine said. "Now, what we absolutely need is a professional development structure in this state to help teachers teach to the standards that we now have put in place, standards that are going to make our kids globally competitive."

Paine says he will urge legislators during the 60-day legislative session that kicked off Wednesday to fund an initiative to help provide one-on-one training and online resources for the state's teachers.

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On the Net:

www.edweek.org/go/qc08

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