The top reported proficiency rate is 36% in English language arts. The lowest is 24% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Taylor County Middle School
Taylor County Middle School sits on Spring Hills Road in Grafton, the county seat of Taylor County, West Virginia. It is a regular public school serving grades five through eight, part of the Taylor County Schools district. The enrollment is moderate for a middle school in this region, with students spread fairly evenly across the four grade levels. The student body is nearly entirely white, with only a handful of students identifying as multiracial, Black, or Asian. The data does not include free-or-reduced-price lunch counts, special-education rates, or English-learner figures, so it is hard to read the economic and support profile of the student population from what is available. Title I status was also not reported.
Grafton itself is a small historic railroad town. It grew up as a junction point for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and a CSX rail yard still runs adjacent to the downtown. Manufacturing in the area includes glass, paper, and rubber products, and the railroad remains a visible economic presence. The downtown commercial district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the city is known as the founding site of Mother's Day. The Tygart Valley River runs through town, and Tygart Lake State Park sits a short distance south. Grafton has been losing population for decades, and no major new housing developments or growth initiatives surfaced in the available research. The built environment largely reflects an earlier construction era, giving the town a settled, historic texture rather than a booming one.
Housing in the school's zip code is affordable by both state and national standards. The typical home value sits well below the state benchmark and far below the national figure, with a price-to-income ratio that suggests homeownership is within reach for many local families compared with much of the country. Rent data was not available for this area, so the rental side of the market is a gap. The economic context includes a moderate national unemployment environment and mortgage rates in the mid-six-percent range.
On state assessments, Taylor County Middle School's results tell a mixed story. English language arts is the stronger subject across most grades, with fifth-grade proficiency at a fairly solid level and grades six through eight landing in a lower but still moderate band. Math proficiency is weaker across the board, dipping to its lowest point in sixth grade before recovering somewhat in seventh. Science results, available only for fifth and eighth grades, are the softest area, with eighth-grade science proficiency particularly low. Participation rates were full or nearly full on every assessment, so the results reflect the whole student body rather than a skewed subset. Only one year of data was available, so there is no trend to examine; a parent comparing year-over-year progress would need to look elsewhere for that. Average scale scores were not reported, which limits the depth of comparison a family can make against other schools.
Because this is a middle school, there is no graduation rate to report, and the absence of that metric simply reflects the grade band served rather than any gap in performance. The same applies to college-readiness measures, which do not apply at this level.
What is missing from the available data is substantial. There is no information on course offerings, career exploration programs, extracurriculars, staffing ratios, discipline incidents, attendance patterns, or specialized programs such as gifted or intervention services. The district brief returned no parent-relevant changes or initiatives from recent years. A family evaluating this school would have the assessment results and the community context but little visibility into the day-to-day program, teacher experience, or school climate. A parent may want to ask the school directly about academic support structures, especially given the lower math and science proficiency, and about what enrichment or intervention options exist for students working above or below grade level.
This is a small-town middle school in a community with deep railroad roots, affordable housing, and a quiet, aging physical fabric. The academic picture is one of moderate reading performance paired with weaker math and science outcomes. The data gaps are wide enough that a family would need to supplement this picture with direct conversations with the school before making a judgment about fit.
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