Summary:
Pendleton County Middle/High School is the sole high school in the Pendleton County Schools district, serving grades 7 through 12 in the rural community of Franklin, West Virginia, with a total enrollment of 386 students.
This combined middle and high school presents a striking split in performance. The middle school grades (7th and 8th) are a clear strength, consistently beating state averages in both Math and English Language Arts. For example, 7th-grade math proficiency is 46.6% and 8th-grade science proficiency is 44.3%, compared to state averages of 29.3% and 23.6% respectively. However, this strong foundation completely evaporates by 11th grade. Math proficiency plummets from 38.6% in 8th grade to just 11.9% in 11th grade, while science falls from 44.3% to 11.9% — less than half the state average. This "eleventh grade cliff" is the school's most defining characteristic, suggesting that while younger students are well-prepared, the high school years fail to sustain those gains. The school's state ranking reflects this volatility, dropping sharply from the 68th percentile in 2024-2025 to the 19th percentile in 2025-2026.
Despite these challenges, the school benefits from a favorable student-teacher ratio of 11.6 to 1, which should allow for individualized attention. The graduation rate is a solid 91.4%, just below the state's 92.8%. Overall, the district itself is highly rated — 4 stars and ranked 10th out of 54 districts in West Virginia — which makes the high school's recent struggles all the more puzzling. For parents, the key takeaway is that this school excels at building a strong academic base in middle school, but families should be aware that high school performance, particularly in science and math, lags significantly behind state norms. The low student-teacher ratio offers potential for improvement, but the current data suggests a disconnect between the school's strong middle school program and its high school outcomes.
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