Summary:
Pleasants County Middle School is the sole middle school in the Pleasants County Schools district, serving grades 5 through 8 with 269 students in a rural West Virginia setting.
This single school is on a clear upward trajectory. Its state ranking has improved dramatically over the past three years, climbing from the 32nd percentile in 2023-2024 to the 48th percentile in 2025-2026, and moving up 32 spots to 83rd out of 161 middle schools. That progress earns it a 2-star rating, while the district as a whole holds a 3-star rating and ranks 20th out of 54 districts. The school’s strongest subject is Science, where 34.3% of students are proficient—well above the state average of 29.3%. However, it trails the state in Mathematics (34.8% vs. 39.4%) and English Language Arts (43.5% vs. 47.6%). A standout bright spot is the 7th-grade math cohort, which posts a 49.3% proficiency rate—12.6 points higher than the state average and dramatically better than the school’s own 8th-grade math score of 25.4%.
For parents, the key takeaway is that this school is improving but uneven. The 5th-grade class shows strong Science performance at 41.6%, yet by 8th grade that drops to 25.4%, suggesting a need for more support in upper grades. ELA proficiency is fairly consistent across grades, ranging from 39.3% in 6th grade to 46.8% in 5th grade. With a favorable student-teacher ratio of 11.9 to 1 and per-student spending of $13,837, the school has solid resources. Since this is the only middle school in the district, its performance directly defines the district’s reputation—so the district’s 3-star rating is essentially a reflection of this one school’s efforts. The upward trend in rankings suggests recent changes are working, but parents should watch how the school addresses the 8th-grade decline in math and science.
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