Best Middle Schools in Zip Code 26301

Zip code 26301 in Clarksburg, West Virginia, is served by two public middle schools, Washington Irving Middle School and Mountaineer Middle School, both part of the Harrison County Schools district and both serving grades 6 through 8.

For parents comparing the two, Washington Irving Middle School is the larger school with 533 students and generally posts higher proficiency rates in most subjects and grade levels. It shows a clear advantage in 8th-grade math (21.8% proficient vs. 15.3%) and 8th-grade science (24.7% vs. 19.4%), and it edges out Mountaineer Middle School in 7th and 8th-grade ELA. However, Mountaineer Middle School performs better in 6th-grade math (21.4% vs. 11.4%) and 6th-grade ELA (42.0% vs. 39.0%). Despite Washington Irving's stronger test scores, both schools rank near the bottom of the state, with Washington Irving at 138th and Mountaineer at 141st out of 168 schools. Notably, Mountaineer has experienced a sharp decline, dropping from the 37th percentile to the 16th percentile in just one year, while Washington Irving has remained relatively stable.

A key concern for both schools is mathematics, where proficiency rates are alarmingly low—often half the already-low state averages. ELA is a relative strength, with proficiency rates roughly double those in math. Interestingly, Mountaineer Middle School spends more per student ($14,266 vs. $13,034) and has a better student-teacher ratio (9.5:1 vs. 12.5:1), yet it performs worse on most metrics. This resource paradox suggests that additional funding and smaller class sizes are not translating into academic gains. Both schools also lag significantly behind their own district averages in nearly every subject, indicating that while Harrison County Schools ranks in the top third of the state, these two schools are not sharing in that success.