The top reported proficiency rate is 52% in Math. The lowest is 32% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Big Elm Elementary School
Big Elm Elementary School sits on Tetrick Road in Shinnston, a small city along the West Fork River in Harrison County, West Virginia. The town grew up around coal, oil, and gas, and while the local economy has shifted toward service-oriented businesses over the years, energy generation remains a source of employment. Harrison Power Station and area mines still anchor the regional job market. Shinnston itself is compact, with a historic downtown corridor along Pike Street, the old U.S. Route 19. Civic life centers on places like the Lowe Public Library, the Bice-Ferguson Memorial Museum, Ferguson Memorial Park, and the West Fork River Trail. The town hosts a Frontier Days Festival and maintains the Levi Shinn log house, the oldest standing structure in north-central West Virginia, as a historic site. Population has been stable to slightly declining. The town sits roughly between Clarksburg and Fairmont, with I-79 reachable a short drive to the southeast.
Big Elm is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, part of Harrison County Schools. The enrollment is moderate for an elementary school, with students distributed fairly evenly across the early grades. The student body is nearly entirely white, with only a handful of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. Several demographic measures were not available in the data provided, including free-or-reduced-price lunch counts, individualized education program rates, and English learner figures. Title I status was also not reported. A parent wanting to understand the socioeconomic mix of the school or the level of specialized support services may want to ask the school directly, since these fields were missing rather than empty by design.
On state assessments, Big Elm shows a clear pattern: fifth-grade results are the strongest, while third and fourth grade lag behind. In math, the proportion of fifth-graders reaching proficiency was well above half, a genuinely strong result. Third grade landed near the midpoint, and fourth grade was lower. English language arts followed a similar arc, with fifth grade reaching proficiency for just over half of tested students, while third and fourth grades were in the lower range. Fifth-grade science proficiency was the weakest result among the tested subjects and grades. Participation was full across every grade and subject tested. Average scale scores were not available, so the proficiency rates are the only window into academic performance the state data provides.
The school only serves through fifth grade, so there are no sixth-, seventh-, or eighth-grade assessment results, and no graduation rate to report. These gaps reflect the grade band the school serves rather than missing performance data. No multi-year trend data was available either, so it is not possible to say from the data whether these results are improving or declining over time. A parent considering Big Elm may want to ask the school about year-over-year direction and what supports are in place for the third and fourth grades, where proficiency was softer.
Housing in the school's zip code is quite affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below the West Virginia state figure and far below the national figure, and the area has seen a modest year-over-year decline in values. Rental data was not available. For families buying, the estimated monthly mortgage cost relative to income is manageable by national standards. The broader economic picture includes a national unemployment rate holding steady in a moderate range and a 30-year fixed mortgage rate that has fluctuated in recent months.
The district brief for Harrison County Schools did not surface any parent-relevant changes of lasting impact. The search came up empty, and rather than guess, that gap is named here. Shinnston's growth outlook, as described on the town's own website, speaks of peaceful living and dynamic growth, though no specific large-scale developments were identified in publicly available sources. The town's small footprint and stable-to-declining population suggest a quiet residential setting rather than one in the midst of rapid expansion.
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