The top reported proficiency rate is 34% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Anna Jarvis Elementary School
Anna Jarvis Elementary School sits on North Pike Street in Grafton, the county seat of Taylor County, and serves children from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade. It is a regular public school within Taylor County Schools. The enrollment is moderate for an early-grades building, with a sizable pre-kindergarten cohort alongside kindergarten through fourth grade. The student body is nearly entirely white, with only a handful of children from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. Data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was not available, and figures for special education and English learner populations were also missing, so a parent wanting to understand the socioeconomic and support-service context would need to ask the school directly.
On state assessments, the school's results are modest. In math, third graders showed proficiency at a level that sits below what most families would hope for, and fourth graders performed lower still. English language arts results were similar, with third and fourth graders both landing in a range that suggests many children are not yet meeting grade-level standards. Participation was full, which means the results reflect the whole tested population rather than a skewed subset. Because Anna Jarvis stops at fourth grade, there are no fifth-grade science scores, no middle-school results, and no graduation rate to report. Those gaps are structural, a function of the grade band the school serves, rather than missing or withheld data. There was only a single year of results available, so no trend could be established. A parent weighing these numbers may want to look into how the school supports children who are below proficiency and what interventions or tutoring are in place.
The town of Grafton shapes the school's environment in ways a family should understand. Grafton originated as a railroad junction for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and a CSX rail yard still operates adjacent to the historic downtown. Manufacturing, including glass, paper, and rubber products, has been part of the local economy for generations. The city is built on a steep hillside where the Tygart Valley River meets Three Fork Creek, which gives the street grid a compact, constrained character. Much of the housing stock dates to the early twentieth century, and the downtown commercial district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Civic life centers on Main Street, the International Mother's Day Shrine, and the Grafton National Cemetery, which hosts what is reportedly the longest continuous Memorial Day observance in the country. Tygart Lake State Park sits a short drive south and provides recreation.
The community is not growing. The population has been declining steadily over several census cycles, and no major housing developments or growth projects surfaced in publicly reported sources. That trajectory gives the area a quiet, settled feel rather than a boomtown energy. Housing is inexpensive by both state and national standards. The typical home value in the school's zip code sits well below the West Virginia benchmark and far below the national one, and the price-to-income ratio is low, making ownership relatively accessible for working families. No rental data was available, so the rental picture is incomplete. Mortgage costs currently run higher than typical rent in the area, which may factor into a family's housing decision.
Taylor County Schools, the parent district, did not surface any parent-relevant changes or initiatives in the research, so there is little to report on recent strategic shifts, program launches, or facility investments. This is a gap rather than an absence of activity; the search simply did not confirm specific developments.
What Anna Jarvis offers is a small early-grades school in an affordable, historically rooted railroad town with strong local traditions and a quiet, declining population. Its academic results are currently below where families would want them, and the data does not yet show a trend in either direction. For a family already rooted in Grafton, it is the neighborhood elementary, and the question worth bringing to the school is what the path to stronger proficiency looks like for each child.
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