Brandywine Elementary School

Brandywine Elementary School is a small, rural school in Brandywine, WV, serving 114 students in grades PK through 6 as part of the Pendleton County Schools district.

This school is a true academic standout. For the 2025-2026 school year, Brandywine is ranked 12th out of 355 elementary schools in West Virginia, placing it in the 97th percentile with a 5-star rating. That puts it far ahead of its district peers: North Fork Elementary School is ranked 90th, and Franklin Elementary School is ranked 186th. The academic gap is dramatic. In math, Brandywine students post a 78.2% proficiency rate, compared to the district average of 43.4% and the state average of 39.4%. In English Language Arts, the school hits 70.9% proficiency, versus 51.7% for the district and 47.6% for the state. This excellence holds across every grade level—5th graders, for example, achieve an extraordinary 90.9% proficiency in math and 81.8% in ELA. With a low student-teacher ratio of 10.1:1, the school provides a personalized learning environment that clearly pays off.

What makes Brandywine especially remarkable is its consistency and resilience. Over the past decade, it has ranked in the top 15% of schools statewide nearly every year, with multiple appearances in the top 5%. Even after a dip to 92nd place in 2021-2022, it rebounded to 27th the very next year, showing strong leadership and effective teaching. The school is also notably successful with students from low-income backgrounds, ranking 4th out of 333 schools statewide for that subgroup in 2022-2023. While science scores are slightly lower than math and ELA, they are steadily climbing (from 35.3% to 54.6% proficiency over four years), indicating a school that is always working to improve. In short, Brandywine is not just a good school for its size—it is one of the best in the entire state.