Original Research by School Decision on Scott High School
Scott High School sits at 1 Skyhawk Place in Madison, the county seat of Boone County, West Virginia. It is a regular public high school serving grades nine through twelve as part of Boone County Schools. The enrollment is moderate for a rural Appalachian high school, with each grade level carrying a comparable share of students and the senior class being the smallest, which is a common pattern in schools serving communities with some out-migration.
The student body is nearly entirely white. A very small number of students identify as Black, Hispanic, or Asian, and no students are reported as American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or two or more races. This is consistent with the broader population of Boone County, which is itself overwhelmingly white. Free and reduced-price lunch data was not available, and we found no information on the share of students with individualized education programs or English learners, so we cannot characterize the level of economic need or special-population support from the data provided.
State assessment results were not available in a form that tells parents how students at Scott are performing. The data we received includes rows for grades three through eight, which this school does not serve, so those are naturally blank. West Virginia's General Summative Assessment does test grade eleven, but no grade-eleven results appear in the data. The multi-year trend file contains single near-zero proficiency entries for math and science that do not constitute a meaningful performance picture, so we will not treat them as such. A parent looking to understand academic outcomes at Scott would want to ask the school or the district directly for the most recent grade-eleven assessment results, graduation rate, and any college- or career-readiness indicators the state reports. None of those were in the data we reviewed.
We also found no course access data, so we cannot speak to the breadth of Advanced Placement offerings, dual-credit partnerships, or career and technical education pathways. No staffing, attendance, or discipline information was provided. No graduation rate was available. These are the kinds of figures a family would want to request from the school before making a judgment about fit, particularly for a student approaching the upper grades.
Madison itself is a small town with a rural Appalachian character. Publicly reported sources describe it as the "Gateway to the Coalfields," a former coal town whose civic life centers on the historic Boone County Courthouse and the Madison Civic Center. The town hosts the annual WV Coal Festival each June and sits near the Little Coal River, which offers outdoor recreation. Daily life is largely car-dependent. The population has been declining modestly in recent years, and the town has stated publicly that it is working toward revitalization following the long contraction of the coal industry. We searched for recent parent-relevant changes in Boone County Schools and found little of lasting impact reported, so we left that out rather than guess.
Housing in the area is inexpensive relative to both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value in the school's zip code sits well below the West Virginia state benchmark and far below the national figure, which reflects the broader economic conditions of a community navigating a post-coal transition. The estimated monthly mortgage on a typical home is modest, and the price-to-income ratio is close to the national midpoint, suggesting that for families with steady employment, homeownership in the attendance zone is within reach. Rental data was not available, so we cannot characterize the rental market from the provided information.
What the data does tell a parent is that Scott is a small, homogeneous rural high school in a community with deep coal-mining roots and a slowly declining population. Housing is affordable, and the town has a clear civic identity. What the data does not tell is whether the school is performing well academically, what courses and supports are available, and how many students graduate on time. Those gaps are wide enough that a family considering Scott should go directly to the school and the district for current results and program details before drawing conclusions.
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