Best Public Schools in Ranson, WV

Ranson Elementary School is the sole public school serving the city of Ranson, West Virginia, a small community within the Jefferson County Schools district, and it educates students from pre-kindergarten through 5th grade with an enrollment of 256 students.

For parents considering this school, the most important takeaway is that Ranson Elementary is currently struggling academically, ranking in the bottom 10% of West Virginia elementary schools with a 0-star state rating for two consecutive years. The school underperforms both its district and state averages in every subject and grade level. The widest gaps are in 3rd-grade math (31% proficiency vs. 54.4% statewide, a 23.4-point deficit) and 4th-grade ELA (32.1% vs. 49.6% statewide, a 17.5-point deficit). Overall, math proficiency is 30.2% and ELA is 34.5%, both well below the state averages of 39.4% and 47.6%, respectively. This is particularly striking because the school sits within Jefferson County Schools, a district ranked 15th out of 54 in West Virginia (top 28%), making Ranson Elementary a significant outlier within an otherwise high-performing district.

There are a few encouraging signs, however. The school's 5th-grade science scores improved dramatically, jumping from 17.1% proficiency to 28.6%—a 67% relative increase year-over-year. Additionally, 5th-grade ELA is the school's strongest subject-grade combination at 42.9% proficiency, though still below the state average of 51%. The school also maintains a favorable student-teacher ratio of 11.6:1 and above-average per-student spending of $14,191, which suggests that resource availability is not the primary barrier. Instead, the data points to instructional quality and support systems as the key areas needing attention. For parents, this means the school offers a caring environment with manageable class sizes, but academic interventions—especially in early-grade math and reading—are critical to help students catch up to grade-level expectations.