The top reported proficiency rate is 39% in English language arts. The lowest is 20% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Belington Middle School
Belington Middle School sits on Morgantown Pike in Belington, a small town along the Tygart Valley River on the western slopes of Laurel Mountain in Barbour County. The school serves grades five through eight and operates as a regular public school under the Barbour County Board of Education. Its enrollment is modest for a four-grade middle school, with each grade cohort roughly similar in size. The student body is almost entirely white, with only a handful of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special education rates, and English-learner counts were not available, so the economic profile of the student population cannot be characterized from what was provided. The same is true for Title I status, which the data did not report.
On state assessments, the most recent results tell a mixed but informative story. In fifth-grade math, a slim majority of tested students reached proficiency, the strongest result across all grades and subjects the state reported for this school. That figure drops sharply by sixth grade, where roughly a quarter of students were proficient, and it stays in that low range through seventh and eighth. The pattern in English language arts is different. Proficiency there starts at a moderate level in fifth grade, dips in sixth, then recovers in seventh and eighth to land at a level comparable to the fifth-grade starting point. Science results are available for fifth and eighth grades only, and they are the weakest numbers the school posts, with eighth-grade science proficiency particularly low. Participation rates were high across the board, near full participation in nearly every grade and subject.
Because the school serves grades five through eight, there are no third- or fourth-grade assessment results to report; those grades are not tested at this school. There is also no graduation rate, which does not apply to a middle school. No multi-year trend data was available beyond the current year, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent an improvement or a decline from prior performance. A parent looking at the sixth-grade math drop or the eighth-grade science result may want to ask the school how it tracks students across grade transitions and what interventions it uses when proficiency falls off.
The town of Belington has a historic downtown anchored by the Golden Rule Company building, a three-story brick structure that once served as a combined grocery, hardware, and department store. The Laurel Hill Battlefield, site of early Civil War land engagements, is open year-round with walking trails and interpretive signage, and the town stages an annual battle reenactment in July. Teter Creek Lake Wildlife Management Area sits a short drive northeast and offers fishing, rustic camping, and a boat ramp. The Tygart Valley River and a tourist railroad running a century-old steam locomotive add to the recreational character. No public transit system or public library was identified in publicly reported sources, and no current major employers were found, though the railway historically anchored the local economy. The town's population has been stable or very slightly declining, and no major new housing developments or growth projects surfaced in the research.
Housing in the Belington zip code is inexpensive by both state and national standards. The typical home value sits well below the West Virginia state benchmark and far below the national figure, and the price-to-income ratio suggests housing here is relatively affordable for buyers with area incomes. Home values have shown a modest year-over-year decline. No rental market data was available for this area.
Information on school programs, course access, staffing, discipline, attendance, and civil-rights indicators was not provided, so those dimensions of the school experience cannot be described here. The Barbour County Board of Education district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as curriculum shifts, property-tax adjustments, or referendums. For a family considering this school, the academic data shows a building where fifth graders start with a reasonably strong footing in math but lose ground as they move through the middle grades, while English language arts holds more steady. The community offers a quiet, rural setting with outdoor recreation and low housing costs, and limited civic infrastructure.
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