The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in English language arts. The lowest is 38% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on West Virginia Academy
West Virginia Academy sits on Chestnut Ridge Road in Morgantown, the college-town hub of north-central West Virginia. It opened in fall 2022 as the state's first brick-and-mortar charter school, and any West Virginia student can enroll regardless of district boundaries, with preference given to families in a primary recruitment area covering parts of Monongalia and Preston counties. The school serves pre-K through grade 12, though its upper grades are still building. There are currently no students in eleventh or twelfth grade, and the high school cohort is small. This is a young school still filling out its grade band.
Morgantown itself is anchored by West Virginia University, which shapes the local economy, demographics, and culture. The city has grown steadily and records some of the lowest unemployment in the state, driven largely by education and healthcare. Major employers include WVU, the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and NIOSH. The Monongahela River runs through downtown, and a revitalized Wharf District offers restaurants and access to miles of paved trails along the riverfront. Neighborhoods range from dense older areas near downtown and WVU to more sprawling residential and commercial development farther out. Housing in the school's zip code sits above the state benchmark but well below the national figure, and rents are moderate relative to national norms. For a family considering the area, this is a growing small city with a university's amenities and a housing market that, while not cheap by West Virginia standards, remains more accessible than much of the country.
The student body is predominantly white, with small shares of Asian, Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data was not available, and information on students with individualized education programs or English learners was not reported, so the picture of economic and learning-support demographics is incomplete. Enrollment is modest for a school spanning pre-K through high school, and with small cohorts per grade, class sizes are likely intimate but can also mean more variability in year-to-year results.
State assessment data is available for grades three through eight, which is appropriate given that those are the tested grades in West Virginia. There is no graduation rate because the school has not yet enrolled a senior class. No multi-year trend data exists yet, since this is only the school's third academic year of testing.
In English language arts, proficiency across the tested grades is generally moderate, with the middle grades showing reasonably consistent results. Grades five and seven come in at the higher end, and grade three is the softest. The ELA picture is the school's steadier subject area. In math, results are more uneven. Fourth grade stands out as a relative high point, but proficiency drops sharply in the upper elementary and middle grades, with eighth grade particularly low. Science results are available only for grades five and eight, and they fall in the moderate range, with grade five stronger than grade eight. A parent may want to look into the school's approach to middle-grade math instruction, since the decline from early to later grades is a pattern worth understanding. Participation was full across all tested grades and subjects.
No data on course access, staffing ratios, discipline, attendance, or program offerings was available, so it is not possible to describe the school's extracurriculars, advanced coursework, or teacher composition from the provided material. Civil rights data was also absent.
Publicly reported information fills in some of the growth picture. The school received early renewal of its five-year charter agreement after meeting its measurable goals, with the renewed term running through 2030. It has purchased land near Cheat Lake and is planning a new Falling Water Campus, with construction expected to conclude in the summer of 2027. The new campus would expand capacity and add athletic facilities including a gym and a mountain biking track. For a family thinking long-term, this is a school with an established charter commitment and a concrete expansion plan, but one still in its early stages of building a full pre-K-through-12 experience.
See more original research from School Decision →