The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This West Virginia edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies impacting the teaching profession. It is hoped that this report will help focus attention on areas where state policymakers could make improvements to benefit both students and teachers. This policy evaluation is broken down into six areas that include a total of 27 goals. Broadly, these goals examine the impact of state policy on the preparation, certification, licensure, compensation and effectiveness of teachers across the elementary, secondary and special education spectra. West Virginia's progress toward meeting these goals is summarized. While West Virginia has significant room for improvement in several areas, it is moving forward, and it has met some of its goals. West Virginia completely missed six goals, met a small portion of nine, partially met four, nearly met two and fully met six. West Virginia deserves credit for its flexible policies for granting licensure to teachers from other states, including those prepared through alternate routes. The state should consider offering at least one genuine alternate route to certification. In the area of teacher evaluation, the state could make improvements by requiring that schools formally evaluate all teachers on an annual basis. The body of the report provides a more detailed breakdown of the state's strengths and weaknesses in each area. Detailed rationale and "Food for Thought" for each area and corresponding goal are appended. (Contains 72 figures.) [Additional funding for this first edition of the "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" was provided by the Achelis Foundation, Bodman Foundation, Daniel's Fund, Fisher Family Foundation, Gleason Foundation, and The Teaching Commission. This state report is part of NCTQ's State Teacher Policy Yearbook series. For the national summary, see ED506661.]