Summary:
Zip code 26537, encompassing Kingwood, West Virginia, is home to a single public high school, Preston High School, which serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the Preston County Schools district.
For parents considering this area, Preston High School is a mid-sized rural school with an enrollment of 1,056 students and a student-teacher ratio of 14.6:1, which allows for reasonable classroom interaction. The school’s graduation rate is solid at 91.4%, just slightly below the state average of 92.8%. However, academic proficiency presents significant concerns. In the most recent testing year, only 8.5% of 11th graders were proficient in mathematics—a critically low figure compared to the state average of 20.6%. English Language Arts proficiency stands at 45.1% versus the state’s 51.2%, and science proficiency is 18.3% compared to 23.6% statewide. These scores have also declined year-over-year in ELA and science, while math has remained stagnant at its very low level. The school’s state ranking reflects this struggle, dropping from the 34th percentile in 2023-2024 to the 27th percentile in 2025-2026, and its star rating has fallen from 2 stars to 1 star.
One notable aspect is that Preston High School is the only high school in its district, meaning all district-level metrics are identical to the school’s own data. This limits any comparative analysis within the area. The disconnect between a relatively strong graduation rate and very low test proficiency suggests students may be advancing without fully mastering core academic skills, particularly in math. Additionally, the lack of available free/reduced lunch data and outdated per-student spending figures (from 2018-2019) make it harder to fully contextualize these challenges. Overall, while the school provides a stable graduation outcome, parents should be aware of the urgent need for academic intervention, especially in mathematics, to address the downward trajectory in state rankings and proficiency rates.
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