The top reported proficiency rate is 46% in Math. The lowest is 32% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Potomack Intermediate School
Potomack Intermediate School sits on Williamsport Pike in Martinsburg, serving third through fifth graders in the Berkeley County Schools system. It is a large intermediate school for its grade band, with three full grade levels of enrollment filling the building. The student body is predominantly white, with a Black population making up the next largest group, followed by smaller Hispanic and multiracial cohorts. A handful of Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native students round out the enrollment. Economic need data through free or reduced-price lunch counts was not reported in the available data, and English learner and special education population figures were also missing, so a parent weighing those supports would want to ask the school directly.
On state assessments, Potomack shows a pattern common to many West Virginia schools: math results start strongest in third grade, where a little over half of tested students reached proficiency, then settle into the mid-forties range in fourth and fifth grades. English language arts results run somewhat steadier across the three grades, hovering in the mid-forties to near half, with fourth grade the strongest. Science, tested only in fifth grade, is the softest area, with fewer than a third of students reaching proficiency. Participation rates are high across all tested grades and subjects, which means the results reflect nearly the full student body rather than a skewed subset. A parent may want to look into the science outcomes and the math dip in upper grades further with the school, since those are the areas where the data sits lowest. No multi-year trend was available, so there is no way to tell from the provided data whether these numbers are improving, declining, or holding steady.
Because Potomack serves only grades three through five, there is no graduation rate, no AP or career-pathway data, and no middle or high school extracurricular profile to report. The school's entire academic footprint in the data is the state general summative assessment. Program offerings, course access, discipline, staffing, and attendance data were not included in what was available, so those dimensions cannot be characterized here.
Martinsburg itself is the county seat of Berkeley County and the largest city in West Virginia's eastern panhandle. It functions as a commuter base for the Baltimore-Washington metro area, with MARC Brunswick Line trains running weekdays to Washington Union Station and Amtrak's Capitol Limited stopping at the downtown station. Interstate 81 runs along the northern edge of town, and the city has grown rapidly over the past two decades, partly on the strength of that highway access and commuter rail. The employment base leans heavily on federal installations, including the IRS Enterprise Computing Center, the Martinsburg VA Medical Center, Coast Guard facilities, and the 167th Airlift Wing at Eastern WV Regional Airport. Private employers include Quad/Graphics, Ecolab, Macy's, FedEx, and a Procter & Gamble facility near the city. The downtown retains a compact historic core with the Berkeley County courthouse, a restored Apollo Theatre, the Belle Boyd House museum, and the B&O roundhouse, while retail has shifted toward the I-81 corridor.
Housing in the school's zip code sits above the West Virginia state benchmark but well below the national figure, reflecting the pull of the broader metro market. Typical home values and rents have been climbing, with rents rising faster year over year than home prices. For a family moving into the area, the cost of ownership is moderate by national standards but relatively steep for the region, and renting carries a similar premium. The combination of a growing commuter population and limited data on school-level supports makes it worth a prospective family's time to visit Potomack directly, ask about intervention structures for math and science, and learn what the intermediate years here look like day to day.
See more original research from School Decision →