The top reported proficiency rate is 53% in English language arts. The lowest is 32% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Franklin Elementary School
Franklin Elementary School sits on South Branch Street in the heart of Franklin, the county seat of Pendleton County, West Virginia. The town is a very small rural community that functions as a governmental and commercial hub for the surrounding agricultural and forested region. Its downtown centers on the Pendleton County Courthouse, with residential streets radiating outward, and the surrounding landscape is defined by the Monongahela National Forest, Seneca Rocks, and Spruce Knob. Franklin is not growing. Publicly reported data indicates the town has been losing population, with a high median age and no new housing or commercial development projects on record. The housing market is modest by national standards, with home values well below both state and national benchmarks, and a price-to-income ratio that suggests relative affordability for those already in or near the area. Transportation is by personal vehicle on two-lane mountain roads, with no public transit.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade and is part of Pendleton County Schools, a district that has seen consolidation in recent years. Several former schools in the county, including Circleville School, Seneca Rocks Elementary, Upper Tract Elementary, and Franklin High School, are now closed, with students consolidated into the district's four remaining schools. That restructuring has affected commute distances and class sizes across the county. Franklin Elementary itself is a small school for its grade band, with enrollment spread fairly evenly across the eight grade levels it serves. The student body is nearly entirely white, with only a small number of students identified as belonging to another racial or ethnic group. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special education counts, and English learner figures were not available, so the economic and special-population picture here is incomplete.
State assessment results from the most recent year show a mixed academic profile. In math, third-grade proficiency is solid, with a majority of tested students reaching proficiency. Fourth and fifth grade hover near the midpoint, with roughly half of students proficient. By sixth grade, however, math proficiency drops to about a third of tested students, a pattern a parent may want to look into further with the school. English language arts follows a different trajectory. Third grade sits below the midpoint, fourth and fifth grade are near the midpoint, and sixth grade shows a strong jump, with a clear majority of students reaching proficiency. Science, tested only in fifth grade at this school, is a soft spot, with fewer than a third of students demonstrating proficiency. Full participation was reported across every tested grade and subject. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement or decline over time. There are no seventh or eighth grade results because the school does not serve those grades, which is expected given its PK through 6 configuration. The school has no graduation rate for the same reason.
No data was available on program offerings, course access, staffing levels, discipline, attendance, or Title I status. Civil rights data was not provided. A neighbor or county-level comparison fact-set was not available either, so this school cannot be positioned against its peers in the county. Franklin Elementary is a small rural elementary school in a town that is quietly contracting, serving a nearly homogeneous student body. Its early-grade math and upper-grade ELA results are the brightest spots in the data, while the sixth-grade math and fifth-grade science results are the areas that stand out as needing attention. For a family considering this school, the community is tight-knit and deeply tied to the surrounding natural environment, and the housing market is accessible. The academic picture is uneven enough that asking the school about its approach to math instruction in the upper elementary grades would be a reasonable next step.
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