Southside K-8

Southside K-8 is a small, rural school in War, WV, serving 266 students in grades PK through 8 as part of the McDowell County Schools district.

While the school faces significant academic challenges overall, there are some notable bright spots. Science is a clear strength, especially in 8th grade, where 27.7% of students are proficient—more than 2.5 times the district average and nearly matching the state average. The school also showed dramatic improvement in supporting its special education students, jumping from the 1st percentile to the 17th percentile in just one year. Additionally, 5th graders achieved a 44.4% proficiency rate in ELA, outpacing the district average. However, math proficiency is critically low at 14.5% overall, and there is a sharp decline in performance as students move into middle school—7th-grade math proficiency drops to just 4.6%. This suggests the transition to middle school is a particularly difficult period that may need extra attention.

Comparing Southside to nearby schools provides useful context. Fall River Elementary School, just 11 miles away in the same district, ranks in the 75th percentile with proficiency rates between 45-73%, showing that high achievement is possible in the same community. Meanwhile, Baileysville Elementary & Middle School in neighboring Wyoming County Schools shares the K-8 structure but significantly outperforms Southside in nearly every subject—for example, 58.3% of Baileysville 7th graders are proficient in ELA compared to just 13.6% at Southside. This indicates the K-8 model itself isn't the issue, and there are successful strategies at other schools that could be studied and replicated. Southside also serves homeless students well, improving from the 0th to the 24th percentile in recent years.