The top reported proficiency rate is 81% in Math. The lowest is 59% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on West Teays Elementary
West Teays Elementary sits in Hurricane, a suburban community positioned roughly between Charleston and Huntington along Interstate 64. The town grew from a railroad stop serving tobacco growers and other farmers in the 1870s and today has a residential feel where most families own their homes, with retail corridors, parks, and recreation amenities nearby. Home values in the school's zip code run well above the West Virginia state benchmark but remain below the national median, and the price-to-income ratio sits in a range that reads as affordable compared with much of the country. For a family weighing a move here, housing costs are a real factor but not in the stretched territory common to coastal suburbs.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and is part of Putnam County Schools. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and its enrollment is on the larger side for an elementary building in this area. The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of Asian, multiracial, Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special-education counts, and English-learner figures were not available in the records we reviewed, so a parent wanting to understand the economic and disability demographics of the peer environment would need to ask the school directly.
Academic results are a clear strength. On the most recent West Virginia General Summative Assessment, math proficiency was high across third, fourth, and fifth grades, with the share of students scoring proficient or above sitting in a band well above what most West Virginia elementary schools post. English language arts results followed a similar pattern, with proficiency rising steadily from third grade to fifth, where the school posted its strongest reading outcome. Participation was at or near full in every tested grade, which means the proficiency figures reflect nearly all eligible students rather than a self-selected subset. These are consistent, broadly strong numbers across the core elementary grades.
Science results were more modest. Fifth-grade science proficiency landed in a middle range, clearly lower than the school's math and reading marks. This is a common pattern in West Virginia elementary schools, and it is not unusual for science to lag reading and math at this level, but a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand how hands-on science instruction is structured and whether it is a priority area for growth.
Because West Teays stops at fifth grade, there are no sixth-, seventh-, or eighth-grade assessment results for this school. That gap reflects the grade band it serves, not a missing or weak result. Likewise, there is no graduation rate or high-school-level outcome data, since those do not apply to an elementary building. We looked for district-level strategic priorities or recent policy changes from Putnam County Schools and found little publicly reported beyond basic directory and demographic information, so we left that out rather than guess. Civil-rights data, discipline figures, staffing ratios, attendance rates, and program offerings such as gifted services, arts, or extracurriculars were also not available in the provided records, which limits the picture of student support and enrichment. A family considering this school should ask about those areas directly.
What the available evidence supports is a school delivering strong core academic outcomes in a stable suburban setting with homeownership-heavy neighborhoods and reasonable housing costs relative to income. The peer environment is large for an elementary school and not very diverse by race or ethnicity. For families prioritizing reading and math proficiency at the elementary level, with a commute-friendly location between two of West Virginia's larger cities, West Teays presents a solid academic pathway.
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