The top reported proficiency rate is 83% in English language arts. The lowest is 50% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Sherman Elementary School
Sherman Elementary School sits on Coal River Road in Comfort, a tiny unincorporated community spread along West Virginia Route 3 in Boone County. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and functions as one of the few civic anchors in the area, sharing that role with little more than a U.S. Post Office. There is no downtown, no walkable commercial core, and no public transit. The built environment is rural residential, with homes scattered along the highway and surrounding country roads. For a parent trying to picture the setting, this is a quiet, spread-out place where the school building carries outsized civic weight.
The student body is small for its grade band and predominantly white, with only a handful of students identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native, Black, or two or more races. The school enrolls children across pre-k and all elementary grades, with kindergarten being one of the larger cohorts. Free or reduced-price lunch data was not available, and figures for special education and English learner populations were missing as well, so a parent wanting to understand the socioeconomic and support-service mix would need to ask the school directly.
On the academic side, Sherman Elementary posts strong state assessment results. In English language arts, the share of students scoring proficient or above runs high across third, fourth, and fifth grade, with fifth grade standing out as especially strong. Math proficiency is solid across the tested grades, sitting comfortably above what many elementary schools in the state achieve. Participation was full across every tested grade and subject. Science, tested only in fifth grade, came in at a middling level, with about half of students reaching proficiency. A parent may want to look into how the school supports science instruction in the upper elementary years, since the ELA and math numbers outpace it.
Because this is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate, no AP or career-pathway data, and no college-readiness measure. Those gaps simply reflect the grade band served. We looked for discipline, course-access, staffing, and attendance details and found none reported, so those areas are left unstated rather than guessed. The same goes for any comparison set placing Sherman against neighboring schools; none was provided.
The broader community context matters for any family considering this school. Comfort is in the heart of southern West Virginia coal country, and the regional economy has been in long-term contraction. Residents most commonly work in transportation and warehousing, mining and extraction, and educational services, though many commute to jobs outside the census-designated place. Median property values declined between 2022 and 2023, and no major housing developments or commercial projects appear to be underway. The community is stable in the sense that it is not growing rapidly or losing population at a dramatic clip, but it is not a place experiencing investment or expansion. Housing is relatively affordable compared with more populated parts of the state, which may appeal to families looking for a lower-cost rural setting.
What a family gets at Sherman Elementary is a small, rural elementary school with genuinely strong reading and math outcomes, full participation on state tests, and a peer environment shaped by a close-knit, homogeneous community. The tradeoff is that the surrounding area offers few amenities, no transit, and an economy tied to industries in decline. For families already rooted in Boone County or drawn to rural life along the Coal River corridor, the academic performance here is a real positive. For families who want a wider range of enrichment activities, diverse peer groups, or walkable community resources, the setting may feel limiting.
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