The top reported proficiency rate is 43% in English language arts. The lowest is 29% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Beale Elementary School
Beale Elementary School is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia, part of the Mason County school district. It sits along the Ohio River in a small, unincorporated community with sparse residential density and limited commercial activity. The area's most identifiable institutional presence is the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers facility on the river. Gallipolis Ferry has been experiencing a modest population decline, and no major new housing developments or growth initiatives surfaced in publicly reported sources. The community ranks in the lower quartile for population density among West Virginia census-designated places, which gives a sense of how rural the setting is.
The school's enrollment is small for its grade band, with students spread fairly evenly across the pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade classrooms. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a very small number of students identifying as Black, Asian, Hispanic, or multiracial. This is a fairly homogeneous peer environment, consistent with the rural character of the surrounding community. Data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was not available, and information on students with individualized education programs or English learners was not reported, so a parent wanting to understand the school's full economic and special-population profile would need to ask the school directly.
On state assessments through the West Virginia General Summative Assessment, Beale's results paint a mixed but informative picture. In math, proficiency in third, fourth, and fifth grades landed in a middle band, with roughly half of tested students meeting or exceeding proficiency in fourth grade and slightly under half in third and fifth. Sixth-grade math proficiency was notably lower, with only about a quarter of tested students reaching proficiency. This is a soft spot a parent may want to look into further with the school, particularly as children approach the transition to middle school. In English language arts, the results vary more widely across grades. Fifth grade stood out as a relative strength, with a clear majority of students proficient. Third, fourth, and sixth grades showed lower proficiency, with about a third of students meeting the bar. Science, tested only in fifth grade, showed a smaller share of students proficient. Participation rates were high across all tested grades and subjects, which means these results reflect nearly the full student body rather than a skewed subset.
Because the school serves only through sixth grade, there are no state assessment results for seventh or eighth grade, and there is no graduation rate to report. This is expected for an elementary school and does not indicate a gap in the school's performance. Trend data across multiple years was not available for comparison, so it is not possible to say from the provided data whether these results represent improvement or decline.
The housing market around Beale Elementary is affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. Home values in the school's zip code sit below the West Virginia state benchmark and well below the national one. The price-to-income ratio suggests that a family earning near the national median income would find homeownership here relatively attainable. Rental data was not available for this area, so renters would need to look elsewhere for current market information.
At the district level, Mason County voters renewed an existing excess levy in late 2024 by a wide margin. The levy continues an existing tax rate rather than imposing a new one, and it funds teacher salaries, technology, extracurricular activities and transportation, extra duty pay, and operational and maintenance expenses. This is a positive signal for the stability of district operations and the programs that families rely on, including those at Beale.
Beale Elementary is a small, rural elementary school with a homogeneous student body and a community that, while declining in population, has shown a willingness to fund its schools. Its academic results are uneven, with a clear strength in fifth-grade reading and weaker spots in sixth-grade math and upper-grade science. For a family drawn to a quiet river community with affordable housing, the school offers a familiar, small-scale environment. A parent considering enrollment would do well to ask the school about its approach to sixth-grade math support and how it prepares students for the transition to middle school.
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