The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in English language arts. The lowest is 36% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Harts Pk-8
Harts PK-8 sits along West Virginia Route 10 in the rural Lincoln County community of Harts, a census-designated place at the mouth of Big Harts Creek where it meets the Guyandotte River. The school serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and is part of Lincoln County Schools. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and with roughly three hundred students spread fairly evenly across eleven grade levels, it is a small community school where children stay in one building from their earliest years through middle school.
The student body is nearly entirely white, with only a handful of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. Data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was not available, nor were figures for students with individualized education programs or English learners. The locale brief for Harts describes a community with low median household income and a high poverty rate, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about the share of students receiving support services, since that context is missing from the reported data.
On state assessments, the most recent results show a clear pattern. In the elementary grades, proficiency is reasonably solid. Third graders performed well in English language arts, with a clear majority testing proficient, and math results for third and fourth grade were also above the midpoint. Fourth-grade ELA matched the math level. Fifth grade was a step down in both subjects but still had roughly half the class or more reaching proficiency in ELA, and somewhat fewer in math. Science, tested only in fifth and eighth grade, was lower, with about a third of students proficient in fifth grade.
The middle grades tell a different story. Sixth and seventh grade proficiency dropped sharply in both math and English language arts, with only about a quarter to a third of students reaching proficient levels. This dip in the middle grades is the most consistent pattern in the school's results. By eighth grade, proficiency rebounded in both subjects, with roughly half the class proficient in math and a slim majority in ELA. Eighth-grade science was similar to fifth grade, with about a third proficient. Participation was full or nearly full across all tested grades. A parent considering this school for a middle-grade child may want to look into how the school supports students through that transition period, since the data suggests those grades are where students struggle most.
Because Harts PK-8 does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report. That is expected for the grade band and not a gap in the data.
The community itself is small and declining. Publicly reported population figures show Harts shrinking over recent census cycles, with projections of continued decline. There is no traditional downtown, no public transit, and limited commercial activity. The built environment is scattered homes along creek hollows and the river valley, connected by Route 10. A Valley Health clinic and the school itself are among the few local anchors. Residents who need broader services or employment likely travel to Huntington to the northwest or Chapmanville to the southeast.
Housing in the area is very inexpensive relative to both state and national benchmarks, and recent data shows home values declining. For a family already rooted in the area, that affordability is a plain fact of the market. For a family considering moving in, the declining values and limited local employment are part of the picture.
We looked for recent district-level changes or initiatives from Lincoln County Schools that might affect families at Harts PK-8, but found little that was publicly reported, so we left that out rather than guess. Information on staffing ratios, course offerings, discipline, attendance, and Title I status was also not available in the provided data. A family evaluating this school should treat those as open questions and ask the school or district directly.
What the evidence supports is a picture of a small, rural community school that does its strongest academic work in the early elementary grades, falters in the middle grades, and partially recovers by eighth grade. It sits in a quiet, spread-out, economically pressed community where the school is one of the few shared institutions. For a family already living in Harts or nearby hollows, it is the local option, and its elementary results are a reasonable foundation. The middle-grade decline is the piece most worth pressing on.
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