Moundsville Middle School

Moundsville Middle School serves 452 students in grades 6-8 in Moundsville, WV, a small city in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, and is part of the Marshall County Schools district.

While the school's overall state ranking has been low for many years, there are signs of gradual improvement—it has climbed from the 2nd percentile in 2018-2019 to the 16th percentile in 2025-2026. The most striking bright spot is the school's exceptional work with special education students, who rank in the top 20% statewide (4 stars). This is a remarkable achievement and suggests the school has developed effective strategies for this group that could potentially benefit all students. However, there is a significant gender gap, with male students consistently outperforming female students, and female students have received 0-star ratings in two of the past three years. Academic proficiency rates trail both district and state averages across all subjects—for example, only 29.7% of students are proficient in ELA compared to the state average of 47.6%, and just 19% of 8th graders meet state standards in science.

The comparison with nearby schools is particularly telling. Sherrard Middle School, located just 6 miles away in the same district, ranks in the 81st percentile with dramatically higher proficiency rates (48.6% in math and 52.2% in ELA). Even the lowest-performing middle school in neighboring Ohio County Schools, Bridge Street Middle School, outperforms Moundsville in ELA by 14 percentage points. Notably, Moundsville spends more per student ($15,610) than either Sherrard ($13,885) or Triadelphia Middle School ($12,663), yet achieves significantly lower outcomes. The school's positive trajectory and proven success with special education students suggest there is real potential for improvement, and studying what higher-performing nearby schools like Sherrard are doing differently could be a valuable next step.