Gilbert Linkous Elementary

Gilbert Linkous Elementary is a PK–5 school in Blacksburg, VA, serving 292 students as part of Montgomery County Public Schools. The school holds a 4-star rating and ranks 201st out of 1,111 Virginia elementary schools for 2025-26, placing it in the 82nd percentile statewide. Over the past four reported years, the school has stayed consistently ranked between 201 and 215, after some volatility in earlier years.

Academically, Gilbert Linkous exceeds both district and state proficiency averages in nearly every tested subject. The strongest results come in 5th grade, where the school posted the highest math (91.4%), reading (89.7%), and science (87.9%) proficiency rates among all comparable nearby elementary schools. Attendance is another clear strength: chronic absenteeism was 8.8% in 2024-25, well below the district's 13.6% and the state's 14.8%. Among nearby schools, Gilbert Linkous trails Kipps Elementary and Harding Avenue Elementary in overall rank but serves a slightly higher-poverty population, and it dramatically outperforms schools like Prices Fork Elementary and Falling Branch Elementary, which have much higher poverty rates.

The school's overall rank, however, masks some uneven results across student groups. In recent years, female students have outperformed male students by a meaningful margin, and some student groups have posted exceptional results while others have hovered near the statewide middle. With per-pupil spending of $9,686 and a student-teacher ratio of 12.1 to 1, the school achieves strong outcomes without exceptionally high spending compared with several lower-performing nearby schools. For parents, the takeaway is a solid, well-rounded school with particularly strong upper-elementary instruction and dependable attendance, though families with children in specific student groups may want to look more closely at how the school serves them.