The top reported proficiency rate is 60% in Math. The lowest is 33% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Cedar Grove Elementary School
Cedar Grove Elementary School sits in a small river town on the Kanawha River along US-60, roughly 25 miles southeast of Charleston. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Kanawha County Schools district. It is a small school by any measure, with roughly one to two classrooms per grade level, and the student body is overwhelmingly white, with a very small number of students identifying as Hispanic, Black, or multiracial. The pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes together account for a healthy share of the enrollment, suggesting the school remains a community entry point for families with young children.
On state assessments, the most recent results paint a mixed but readable picture. In math, third graders posted a strong proficiency rate, with well over half of tested students meeting the bar. Fourth grade held a solid majority as well, and fifth grade dipped to roughly half. The pattern is one of strength in the early grades with some softening by fifth grade. English language arts results are more modest across the board, with fewer than half of third and fourth graders reaching proficiency and fifth grade only slightly above that mark. Science, tested only in fifth grade, came in below a third of students proficient. A parent looking at these numbers may want to ask the school how it supports reading growth in the upper elementary years and what interventions are in place for science instruction. Participation was full across all tested grades, which means the results reflect the whole cohort rather than a partial sample.
Average scale scores were not available, and the data did not include free-or-reduced-price lunch counts, special education rates, or English learner figures. These gaps mean it is hard to assess the economic and instructional needs the school is serving. We looked for the district's recent strategic priorities or board decisions that might affect Cedar Grove Elementary and found little, so we left that out rather than guess.
Because the school stops at fifth grade, there are no middle school or eighth grade assessment results, and no graduation rate applies. The locale brief notes that the building once housed a middle school, but that program closed in 2021, with students redirected to the nearby town of Belle for secondary education. That change reflects the broader trajectory of Cedar Grove itself, a town in long-term population decline from a peak several decades ago. The community is compact, car-dependent, and oriented around the highway corridor. Publicly reported sources describe a town with limited commercial activity, a volunteer fire department, historic landmarks, and a youth park behind the school. No public transit system serves the area.
Housing in the Cedar Grove zip code is quite affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value sits well below the state median and far below the national figure, and recent appreciation has been modest. For a family already rooted in the area, the cost of living is low. For a family considering moving in, the housing market is accessible but the community context is one of contraction rather than growth, and nearby employment options likely require a commute to Charleston or Montgomery.
What Cedar Grove Elementary offers is a small, community-embedded school where children attend class in the same building that has served the town for generations. The academic results are strongest in early math and softer in reading and science, and the small class sizes mean each tested grade reflects only a handful of students, so year-to-year variation can be meaningful. Families considering this school should weigh the close-knit setting and low cost of living against the town's declining population and the questions raised by the upper-grade proficiency numbers.
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