After experiencing a precipitous drop in math test scores throughout the division, and especially at the middle school level, Mathews County Public Schools is calling on outside help to address the problem.

“It’s time to pull in a third party,” superintendent of schools Nancy Welch said. The division has arranged for math specialist Sam Rhodes from the College of William and Mary to make a thorough evaluation of what went wrong and to recommend steps to boost student performance.

While most of Mathews County’s test scores are on a par with or better than the state average, the overall pass rate in mathematics for Mathews students in the state’s 2017-2018 Standards of Learning tests was a dismal 67 percent.

The most dramatic drop in test scores took place in eighth grade math, where the pass rate dropped from 64 percent in 2016-2017 to only 28 percent this past year.

In spite of the low math scores, all three schools still appear to be headed for full a...