The top reported proficiency rate is 65% in Math. The lowest is 34% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cross Lanes Elementary School
Cross Lanes Elementary School sits on Big Tyler Road in the Charleston zip code that carries a Charleston mailing address but functions as part of the broader Kanawha County suburbs. It is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, part of Kanawha County Schools. It is neither a charter nor a magnet. The school draws a predominantly white student body, with smaller shares of students identifying as two or more races, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. The enrollment is modest for an elementary school spanning seven grade levels. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not reported, so the economic profile of the student body is not something we can characterize from what is available. Individualized education program and English learner counts were also missing.
The most recent state assessment results, from the West Virginia General Summative Assessment, show a school with real strengths in the middle elementary grades and softer spots at the bookends. Fourth grade stands out. Math proficiency there was strong, with most tested students reaching proficiency, and English language arts results in the same grade showed a solid majority proficient as well. Third grade tells a different story. Math proficiency was above half but lower than fourth grade, and ELA proficiency fell below half. Fifth grade results land in between: roughly half of students were proficient in both math and ELA, with math slightly ahead. Science, tested only in fifth grade, was the weakest result, with about a third of students reaching proficiency. Participation was high across every tested grade and subject, with nearly all students sitting for the exams.
Because the school stops at fifth grade, there are no sixth, seventh, or eighth grade results, and there is no graduation rate to report. The missing middle-grade results simply reflect the grade band the school serves. We also found only a single year of assessment data, so there is no trend to describe. Average scale scores were not reported for any grade or subject.
Charleston, as a place, is the capital and largest city of West Virginia, sitting at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers where Interstates 64, 77, and 79 meet. The publicly reported character of the city is one of a government and healthcare-centered economy that evolved from its earlier reliance on salt, coal, natural gas, and chemical manufacturing. State government is the dominant employer. The downtown core along the river is walkable and event-driven, with Haddad Riverfront Park hosting festivals like the Sternwheel Regatta and FestivALL Charleston, while the residential neighborhoods extending outward are largely car-dependent. The city's population has been declining modestly. The Charleston Area Alliance leads economic development focused on downtown revitalization, and Charleston Main Streets works the East End and West Side business districts.
The housing market around the school is affordable by national standards. Typical home values in the school's zip code sit below the national benchmark but slightly above the state benchmark for West Virginia. Rents are modest, and the price-to-income ratio is favorable compared with much of the country. For a family weighing a move into the area, this means housing costs are unlikely to be the deciding factor in school choice; the broader Kanawha County market does not carry the price pressure seen in many metropolitan areas.
We looked for program offerings, discipline data, staffing ratios, attendance figures, and course access information, and none were available in the provided data. Title I status was not reported. The same was true for civil rights and student outcome measures beyond proficiency. A parent weighing Cross Lanes against other elementary schools in Kanawha County Schools would want to ask the school directly about its approach to early literacy, given that third grade ELA results lag the school's own fourth grade performance, and about science instruction, where fifth grade proficiency was the lowest of the reported measures. The fourth grade results suggest the school is capable of moving a large share of students to proficiency, so the question for a family is whether that pattern holds across cohorts or reflects a particular group of students and teachers. The school could not tell us, and we will not guess.
For a family living in or near Charleston, Cross Lanes offers a conventional public elementary pathway in an affordable suburban zip code, with assessment results that are uneven but encouraging in the middle grades and participation rates that suggest nearly every student is showing up to be tested.
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