The top reported proficiency rate is 33% in English language arts. The lowest is 14% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Talcott Elementary School
Talcott Elementary School sits in a tiny unincorporated river community along the Greenbrier River in Summers County, West Virginia. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and is part of Summers County Schools. Its setting is deeply rural. There is no downtown or commercial street grid in Talcott, just scattered residences, fishing camps, and summer houses along the river. John Henry Park, at the entrance of the historic Great Bend Tunnel, serves as the community's main civic gathering point, and the annual John Henry Days festival each July is the centerpiece of local life. The Greenbrier River itself anchors the area, with a public boat ramp near the Talcott Bridge popular for float trips down to Hinton.
The school is small for its grade band, with enrollment distributed across pre-kindergarten and kindergarten through fifth grade. The student body is nearly entirely white, with only a handful of students identified as two or more races. No other racial or ethnic groups are represented in the reported counts. Data on free or reduced-price lunch, special education enrollment, and English learner status was not available, so it is not possible to characterize the school's economic demographics or special populations from the information provided.
State assessment results from the most recent year are available for grades three through five in math and English language arts, and for fifth grade in science. Participation was full across all tested grades. The results paint a mixed picture that shifts by subject and grade. In math, third-grade proficiency sits at a moderate level, but it declines steeply in fourth grade and drops further by fifth grade, where only a small fraction of students reached proficiency. English language arts shows a different pattern, with third and fourth grade at similar modest levels and fifth grade notably stronger, approaching the math proficiency rate seen in third grade. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows proficiency at the same low level as fifth-grade math. Average scale scores were not reported, so it is not possible to add further detail beyond the proficiency rates themselves. No multi-year trend data was available beyond the current year, so there is no way to tell whether these results represent a consistent pattern or a single year's fluctuation. The small number of students tested in each grade means that a few individual scores can move the results meaningfully, which is worth keeping in mind when reading these figures.
Because Talcott Elementary serves only pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, there are no state assessment results for grades six through eight and no graduation rate, as those grades and outcomes fall outside this school's grade range. Data on discipline, course access, staffing, and attendance was not available. Title I status was not reported.
Housing in the Talcott area is inexpensive compared with both state and national benchmarks. The typical home value sits well below the West Virginia statewide figure and far below the national level, and the estimated monthly mortgage cost is modest. The local housing market has seen recent year-over-year appreciation at a pace above the state average, though from a very low base. No rental data was available. The broader economic context includes a national unemployment rate that has held steady in a typical range, and median household income figures reflect the national level rather than the local area, so they should not be read as specific to Talcott.
Within Summers County Schools, the district recently underwent a structural change that affects Talcott Elementary families as their children move up. In the early part of this decade, the district merged its standalone high school and middle school into a single consolidated school serving grades six through twelve, with a career and technical education center included. For Talcott Elementary students, this means the transition out of fifth grade leads to a single secondary campus rather than a separate middle school, which simplifies the pathway but also places students into a combined middle and high school environment at an earlier stage.
What the available data suggests is a small, community-rooted elementary school in a rural river town with very modest housing costs and a homogeneous student population. The academic results are uneven, with relative strength in early-grade math and fifth-grade reading but clear weakness in upper-grade math and science. A parent considering this school may want to look into how the school supports students in the upper elementary grades, particularly in math, and ask about resources and instructional approaches tied to those results. The small class sizes can mean close attention from teachers, but they also mean that proficiency figures carry more volatility than they would in a larger school.
See more original research from School Decision →