The top reported proficiency rate is 45% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Madison Elementary
Madison Elementary sits in the small Boone County seat of Madison, a town that publicly identifies as the "Gateway to the Coalfields" and retains a rural Appalachian character. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and belongs to Boone County Schools. Its enrollment is modest for an elementary spanning seven grade levels, and the student body is overwhelmingly white, with only a handful of students identifying as Asian, Black, or two or more races. Free and reduced-price lunch figures were not reported, so the economic profile of the student body cannot be read from the data provided. Similarly, individualized education program and English learner rates were missing. A parent evaluating peer environment will find a small, relatively homogeneous community typical of southern West Virginia county-seat elementary schools.
The town itself is car-dependent, with a traditional Main Street anchored by the historic Boone County Courthouse and the Madison Civic Center. Publicly reported sources note the annual WV Coal Festival each June and outdoor activity along the Little Coal River. Population has declined modestly over recent years, and the town has stated it is working toward revitalization, though no specific new housing developments were mentioned in the research. Major current employers were not identified, though government and civic functions naturally flow from the county-seat status. The housing market here is quite affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks, with typical home values well below the West Virginia statewide figure and far below the national figure. For a family buying a home, the price-to-income ratio sits near the national midpoint, meaning local wages stretch reasonably against local prices.
Academic results from the most recent state assessment cycle present a mixed picture. In math, proficiency declines as students move through the grades: third graders performed strongest, with roughly half testing proficient, while fourth grade dipped and fifth grade fell further. This downward pattern across grade levels is a pattern a parent may want to look into further with the school, particularly how instruction and support change as students approach the transition to middle school. English language arts results are less consistent across grades, with fourth grade standing out as a relative bright spot and third grade lagging. Science, tested only in fifth grade, showed a comparatively low share of students reaching proficiency. Participation was strong across nearly all tested grades, which means the results reflect the student body broadly rather than a skewed subset.
Because the school ends at fifth grade, there are no sixth, seventh, or eighth grade results, and there is no graduation rate to report. These gaps reflect the grade band served, not a missing or weak result. The state data also covers only a single assessment cycle, so no year-over-year trend can be drawn from what was provided. A parent asking whether the school is improving or declining would need to look elsewhere for that answer.
Several pieces of context a parent might want were absent from the data. No neighbor comparison among Boone County schools was available to position Madison Elementary against nearby peers. No information on program offerings, course access, staffing ratios, discipline, attendance, or Title I status was provided. The district brief for Boone County Schools returned little of lasting impact, so any recent strategic priorities or structural changes at the district level are not reflected here. The locale brief also did not name specific current employers, so the local job picture beyond county government and remnants of the coal industry remains unspecified.
What the available evidence does support is a characterization of Madison Elementary as a small, community-rooted elementary school in an affordable, quiet Appalachian county seat, with math results that soften in the upper elementary grades, English language arts results that vary by grade, and a fifth grade science outcome that sits below the school's own math and reading marks. Families drawn to a low-cost small-town setting with a traditional elementary pathway will find that here. Those wanting deeper program detail, trend data, or a comparative read against neighboring Boone County schools should ask the school and district directly, since the provided data does not speak to those questions.
See more original research from School Decision →