Summary:
Zip code 25521, located in the rural community of Griffithsville, WV, is served by a single public elementary school, Duval Pk-8, which is part of the Lincoln County Schools district and enrolls 300 students across grades PK through 8.
For parents considering this area, Duval Pk-8 is the only educational option, and its academic performance is a significant concern. The school consistently ranks in the bottom 2% of all West Virginia schools, and in the 2023-2024 school year it was ranked dead last in the state (368th out of 368). Overall proficiency rates are well below district and state averages in every subject: Mathematics sits at 22.8% (state: 39.4%), English Language Arts at 29.0% (state: 47.6%), and Science at a particularly alarming 7.6% (state: 29.3%). This means that in Science, fewer than one in ten students at the school are meeting proficiency standards, a rate less than a third of the state average.
Despite these low overall numbers, there are notable bright spots and anomalies. The school's student-teacher ratio is a favorable 9.5, suggesting smaller class sizes that typically allow for more individualized attention, yet this advantage is not reflected in test scores. More intriguingly, 6th-grade students achieve a 40.4% proficiency rate in Mathematics, which is actually above the state average of 35.4%, while 5th-grade students show the lowest scores in both Math (5.6%) and ELA (11.1%). This dramatic swing between consecutive grade levels suggests a possible "cohort effect" or a particularly effective 6th-grade math program that could serve as a model for other grades. The school's ranking has also improved slightly from last place to 347th out of 355, a marginal but positive trend. Parents should be aware that while the current 5th-grade class may struggle, the success of the 6th-grade cohort offers a glimmer of hope for targeted improvement.
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