The top reported proficiency rate is 44% in Math. The lowest is 33% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Jane Lew Elementary School
Jane Lew Elementary School sits on Main Street in the heart of a very small northern Lewis County town, serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of Lewis County Schools. The town of Jane Lew clusters along the US-19 corridor near I-79, with a compact stretch of storefronts, a town hall, a local history museum, a VFW post, and a handful of restaurants and service stations. The surrounding area is rural and agricultural, cut through by Hackers Creek. The school itself is woven into this small-town fabric rather than set apart on a campus, and the community's identity and its elementary school are closely linked.
Academically, the most recent state assessment results paint a mixed picture across the tested grades. In math, third and fourth graders show moderate proficiency, with fourth grade standing out as the stronger cohort. Fifth grade math proficiency drops noticeably. English language arts results follow a similar pattern, with third grade lagging, fourth grade performing better, and fifth grade landing in between. Science is tested only in fifth grade at this level, and the proficiency rate there is modest. These are single-year snapshots with no multi-year trend available, so it is hard to say whether what the current numbers reflect is a temporary dip or a persistent pattern. A parent weighing these results may want to ask the school how it supports students who are not yet meeting proficiency benchmarks, particularly in the upper elementary grades where the numbers soften.
Because Jane Lew Elementary ends at fifth grade, there are no middle school or eighth grade assessment results, and the school has no graduation rate to report. Those gaps simply reflect the grade band served, not a missing or weak result. Likewise, free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special education counts, and English learner figures were not available in the data we reviewed. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a very small number of students identifying as multiracial or Hispanic, and the total enrollment is modest for a school covering seven grade levels. Class sizes by grade appear fairly even across the building.
The town's housing market is modest by national standards. Typical home values in the Jane Lew zip code sit well below both the state and national benchmarks, making ownership relatively accessible for families with median incomes. Rental data was not available. The broader economic context includes a stable national unemployment rate and mortgage rates in the mid-six percent range. Jane Lew itself is not growing. Publicly reported estimates show a modest population decline since the last census, and town officials have flagged a desire to attract more traveler-serving businesses to the US-19 corridor. One development worth noting is Dominion Energy's relocation to a nearby industrial park, which is expected to bring a steady flow of workers into town daily. How that translates into demand for housing or school enrollment over time remains to be seen.
At the district level, Lewis County Schools secured a practical win for families when voters overwhelmingly approved renewal of the regular school levy in May 2024. Because it was a renewal, residents' tax rates did not change, but the measure locks in ongoing funding for transportation, staff salaries, extracurricular programming, technology, and facilities maintenance. For a school the size of Jane Lew Elementary, that kind of stable support matters in keeping basics running without disruption.
What a family finds here is a small, community-rooted elementary school in a quiet rural town with affordable housing and a stable funding base. The academic results are uneven across grades and subjects, and the absence of demographic and economic detail for the student body limits a fuller picture. A parent considering this school would do well to visit, ask about instruction in the upper elementary grades, and learn how the school plans to build on its stronger fourth grade results as those students move through fifth grade and beyond.
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