Summary:
Zip code 26521 is home to just one high school, Clay-Battelle High School, a small rural school in Blacksville, WV, serving 332 students in grades 6 through 12 as part of the highly-rated Monongalia County Schools district.
For parents, the most striking feature of Clay-Battelle High School is its perfect 100% graduation rate, which far exceeds both the district (96.2%) and state (92.8%) averages. The school also offers a favorable 12:1 student-teacher ratio, suggesting smaller classes and more personalized attention. Academically, the school shows a clear strength in English Language Arts, where students at every grade level outperform the state average, with 6th and 8th graders scoring around 61% proficiency. However, this strength does not extend to all subjects. Overall proficiency in mathematics (34.1%) and science (25.3%) lags behind state averages, and the school consistently trails its own district in every subject and grade level, particularly in science and 11th-grade math.
The most concerning trend is a significant academic decline as students progress. While 8th graders achieve 46.4% proficiency in math, this drops to just 15.4% by 11th grade; science proficiency falls from 33.9% to 12.8% over the same period. This "middle school vs. high school" gap, combined with a state ranking that has slipped from the 40th percentile to the 23rd percentile in just two years, creates a paradox: students are graduating at a perfect rate, yet their test scores suggest they may not be meeting the same academic benchmarks as peers elsewhere. While the school benefits from its top-tier district affiliation, it is an underperformer relative to other schools in Monongalia County Schools, making it a solid choice for families prioritizing graduation and class size over top-tier test performance.
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