The top reported proficiency rate is 41% in English language arts. The lowest is 34% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Elkins Third Ward Elementary School
Elkins Third Ward Elementary School sits in the heart of Elkins, a small county-seat town in the Allegheny Highlands of West Virginia. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of Randolph County Schools, and its enrollment is modest for its grade band. The student body is predominantly white, with small representation from other racial and ethnic groups. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available, so the economic profile of the student population cannot be characterized from the data on hand. Information on students with individualized education programs and English learners was also missing.
Elkins itself blends residential neighborhoods with a compact historic downtown along Davis Avenue, where locally owned shops and restaurants cluster. The town functions as a regional hub for healthcare, tourism, and wood-products, anchored by two hospital complexes, Davis & Elkins College, and the Monongahela National Forest headquarters. The former railyard has been redeveloped with an amphitheater, farmer's market, and commercial space, and a city strategic plan has prioritized more walkable streets. Schools and civic life are woven into the downtown fabric rather than set apart on separate campuses. Corridor H, a four-lane highway, connects westward to Interstate 79, with long-term plans for further extension. Housing in the area is relatively affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks, with a price-to-income ratio below two. No rental data was available, so the rental picture is incomplete.
State assessment results from the most recent year are available for grades three through five on the West Virginia General Summative Assessment, with full participation across all tested grades. The school's results show a mixed academic picture. In English language arts, proficiency is moderate and fairly steady across the three tested grades, with fourth grade being the strongest. Math results are more uneven. Fourth grade stands out as the school's strongest math performance, while third grade is middling and fifth grade drops noticeably. A parent may want to look into this fifth-grade math decline further with the school, particularly whether it reflects a cohort issue or a broader pattern. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows a moderate proficiency rate. No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say whether these results represent improvement, decline, or stability over time. Average scale scores were not reported, limiting the picture to proficiency rates alone.
Several data gaps bear mentioning. Because the school does not serve grades six through eight, there are no middle-grade assessment results; those rows appear as missing for the straightforward reason that the school does not teach those grades. No graduation rate applies to an elementary school. The data did not include discipline, course access, staffing, or attendance information, and the school's Title I status was not reported. We looked for parent-relevant changes in Randolph County Schools but found little, so we left it out rather than guess.
What the available evidence describes is a small-town elementary school with a stable but modest academic profile, strongest in the middle elementary grades and weakest in fifth-grade math. Families considering this school are choosing a place embedded in a community with genuine civic and institutional anchors, a walkable downtown with real character, and housing costs well below national levels. The academic results suggest a school doing decent work in the earlier tested grades but facing challenges as students approach the transition to middle school. Asking the school directly about its upper-elementary math instruction and supports would be a reasonable next step for any parent weighing this option.
See more original research from School Decision →