Summary:
Farmington, West Virginia, is served by a single public high school, North Marion High School, which educates students in grades 9 through 12 as part of the Marion County Schools district.
For parents, the most important takeaway is that North Marion High School is currently experiencing a significant academic decline, even though it maintains a very strong graduation rate. The school has dropped from a 4-star rating and a top-quartile state ranking in 2023-2024 to a 2-star rating and a bottom-half ranking (66th out of 105 schools) for 2025-2026. This decline is driven by sharp drops in test scores. In just one year, math proficiency fell from 20.5% to 12.3%, and science proficiency fell from 27.2% to 17.8%. Both subjects now trail the state average by significant margins (8.3 points in math and 5.8 points in science). English Language Arts is the school's relative strength, with 47.3% proficiency, though it still lags the state average by about 4 points. Despite these academic struggles, the school's graduation rate is an impressive 96.7%, which is nearly 4 points higher than the state average of 92.8%.
This creates a paradox for families to consider: the school is very effective at getting students to graduate, but the proficiency data suggests that many students may not be mastering state academic standards, particularly in STEM subjects. It is also worth noting that while Marion County Schools ranks in the top 20% of districts statewide, North Marion High School itself ranks in the bottom 40% of schools, indicating it is a lagging school within a generally strong district. With an enrollment of 671 students and a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.3:1, the school has a history of strong performance (4 stars just two years ago), suggesting it has the capacity to improve. The urgent need is for targeted intervention in math and science to reverse the current downward trend.
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