The top reported proficiency rate is 47% in Math. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Lakewood Elementary School
Lakewood Elementary School sits in Saint Albans, a small historic river town at the confluence of the Kanawha and Coal Rivers in Kanawha County, part of the broader Charleston metropolitan area. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school within Kanawha County Schools. Its campus is tucked into a residential neighborhood, part of a pattern across Saint Albans where elementary schools are distributed throughout the city rather than clustered around the downtown core along MacCorkle Avenue.
Saint Albans has a modest commercial downtown with shops, restaurants, and the Alban Arts Center, but the broader built environment is auto-oriented, bisected by major highways and near several interstates. The city manages seven parks and has established flatwater trail access along its rivers, giving families some recreational options. The town is predominantly white, and Lakewood's student body reflects that: the large majority of enrolled students are white, with small numbers of students identifying as Black, two or more races, Hispanic, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. The school is small for its grade band, with roughly even distribution across grades from pre-kindergarten through fifth.
On state assessments, Lakewood's results tell a mixed story. In math, fourth graders performed strongest, with well over half reaching proficiency. Third graders landed in the middle range, and fifth graders came in lower, with roughly a third of tested students proficient. English language arts followed a similar pattern: fourth grade was the strongest showing, while third and fifth grades had fewer than half of students meeting the proficiency bar. Science results for fifth grade were notably low, with only a small fraction of students reaching proficiency. Participation rates were high across all tested grades. A parent looking at these results may want to ask the school how it supports science instruction in particular, and what interventions are in place for students who are not yet proficient in reading and math as they approach the transition to middle school.
The school had only a single year of assessment data available, so there is no trend to compare against. Average scale scores were not reported. Free or reduced-price lunch counts, special education rates, and English learner data were all missing from the available information, so it is difficult to gauge the economic and learning needs the school is serving. Title I status was also not reported.
The housing market around Lakewood is affordable by most standards. Home values in the school's zip code sit well below both the state and national benchmarks, and recent year-over-year values have declined modestly. Estimated monthly mortgage costs are low relative to national figures, and the price-to-income ratio is favorable for families earning the area's typical wages. This is a community where homeownership is within reach for many households, though the town's population has been contracting and no major new residential or commercial development projects were identified. The local economy has no clearly documented major employers specific to Saint Albans; the broader Charleston metro area carries healthcare, state government, chemical manufacturing, and retail, but families should not assume those sectors are accessible from this immediate area without looking further.
Publicly reported information about Kanawha County Schools' recent strategic priorities, curriculum changes, or facility decisions was not available in the materials reviewed. The district brief search returned only basic directory and demographic information without evidence of changes meeting a lasting-impact threshold. Families considering Lakewood may want to contact the district directly for information about academic programming, support services, and any upcoming initiatives that could affect the school.
Lakewood fits families seeking a small, neighborhood-centered elementary school in an affordable river town with a modest but genuine civic life. The academic results are uneven, with a clear dip in the upper elementary grades and a particularly weak science showing. The missing data on economic disadvantage and special populations limits the picture of what the school is working with. A parent weighing this school should visit, ask about instruction in the tested subjects, and look into how the school prepares fifth graders for the move to middle school.
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