Short Line School

Short Line School in Reader, WV, is a small, rural PK-8 school in the Wetzel County Schools district, serving 364 students with a favorable 11.2 student-to-teacher ratio that means smaller class sizes than the state average.

The most remarkable story at Short Line is its recent success with special education students. In the 2025-2026 school year, this subgroup ranked 40th out of 158 schools statewide (75th percentile), earning a 4-star rating—a dramatic turnaround from just two years prior when they ranked in the bottom 4% of the state. This points to a recent, effective overhaul of special education strategies that parents should feel encouraged about. However, the school shows a significant gender achievement gap, with female students ranking in the 46th percentile statewide while male students rank in the 21st percentile—a pattern that has persisted for three years. Additionally, there's a sharp academic decline in middle school: 3rd-grade math proficiency sits at 60.6%, but by 6th grade it plummets to just 14.3%. This "tale of two schools" means primary grades (3-5) perform competitively with state averages, while middle school grades (6-8) fall 10-20 points below them.

Compared to nearby schools, Short Line is the weaker performer than New Martinsville School, which consistently ranks in the 60th-69th percentile, while Short Line sits at the 35th percentile. The gap is starkest in middle school—New Martinsville's 6th-grade math proficiency (45.2%) is more than triple Short Line's (14.3%). The contrast with Arthur I Boreman Elementary School in Tyler County is even more pronounced, as Boreman ranks in the 86th percentile with 70.8% math proficiency. Short Line does outperform Long Drain School in the same district, though both show similar patterns of strong 3rd-grade performance followed by decline. Notably, Short Line spends more per student ($19,449) than most comparables, yet results remain inconsistent—the school's ranking has swung from 361st to 122nd over the past decade, suggesting performance is heavily influenced by each incoming class rather than a stable school-wide system.