The top reported proficiency rate is 50% in Math. The lowest is 40% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Aurora School
Aurora School sits in one of West Virginia's smallest, most rural communities, a place where the school itself functions as a primary civic anchor. The community of Aurora is an unincorporated census-designated place in Preston County, set among rolling mountains, forests, and pastureland at high altitude along U.S. Route 50 between Rowlesburg and the Maryland state line. There is no downtown commercial district, no public library, no transit system. Scattered homes, small family farms, a few historic inns, and Cathedral State Park to the east make up the built and natural environment. The community was once a late-nineteenth-century resort area with large hotels; today it is quiet, agricultural, and sparsely populated, with farming and timber as the economic base. A slight population decline has set in rather than growth, and no major new housing or commercial development is evident.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, which means there is no graduation rate to report and no high school level course access data. It is a regular public school within Preston County Schools. Enrollment is small for a school spanning so many grades, with only a handful of students per grade. The student body is nearly entirely white. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available, and the school did not report figures for students with individualized education programs or English learners, so those population details remain unknown. Full participation was reported on the West Virginia General Summative Assessment across all tested grades.
On state testing, the picture is mixed and varies considerably from grade to grade. In math, third grade stood out as a strong point, with most tested students reaching proficiency. Fifth grade also performed well. Fourth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade showed lower proficiency rates, with roughly a third of students meeting the bar. Sixth grade math results were suppressed by the state, likely reflecting the very small number of students tested at that grade level rather than a performance issue.
English language arts results were more consistent but generally modest. Third, fourth, and fifth grade landed in a middle band, with about half or slightly under half of students proficient. Seventh grade dipped further, and eighth grade was the lowest point in ELA, with only a small share of students reaching proficiency. Science was tested only in fifth and eighth grade, and the two grades told different stories: fifth grade science was low, while eighth grade science was comparatively strong, with most students proficient.
Read with care, these results reflect both real variation and the challenge of small cohorts. With only a dozen or so students tested per grade, a single student's performance shifts the proficiency rate substantially. The strong third grade math and eighth grade science results are genuinely encouraging. The weaker ELA results in the upper grades are worth a closer conversation with the school, particularly the eighth grade figure, which is the lowest in the data set. A parent may want to ask how the school supports literacy growth as students move into the middle grades.
Because Aurora School does not extend beyond eighth grade, families will need to plan for a high school transition. Preston County Schools is the parent district, and it recently established the Rowlesburg Opportunity Center, which may affect school assignments and educational options in the surrounding area. Families should confirm with the district which high school Aurora students feed into and what programs are available there.
Housing in the Aurora zip code is quite affordable relative to both state and national benchmarks. Home values sit well below the West Virginia state average and far below the national figure, making homeownership realistic on modest incomes. Rental data was not available for this area. The median estimated monthly mortgage, assuming a twenty percent down payment, is low by national standards. No major housing developments are underway, so the housing stock remains limited and rural in character. This is a place where families looking for space, quiet, and proximity to nature will find it, but where amenities, shopping, and employment are a drive away, likely toward Morgantown or other larger towns.
Aurora School fits a family seeking a small, rural, community-rooted environment where children stay in one building from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The peer group will be small and homogeneous. Academic preparation appears solid in the early grades and uneven in the upper grades. The community offers little in the way of walkability or services but provides a grounded, quiet setting with strong natural surroundings. A parent weighing this school should look closely at the middle-grade literacy data and ask about the high school pathway, while recognizing that the small cohort sizes make every year's results volatile.
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