Derby Virtual School

Derby Virtual School is a small, alternative K-12 school in the Derby district, serving just 65 students and offering a non-traditional pathway for learners who may thrive outside a standard classroom.

The most striking feature of Derby Virtual School is its extreme year-over-year volatility. In the 2023-2024 school year, the school faced a severe crisis with a staggering 50% dropout rate and a 55.7% chronic absenteeism rate. However, in 2024-2025, those numbers dramatically improved to 4.5% and 0.0%, respectively. This suggests either a highly effective intervention or a significant change in reporting. While the school’s graduation rate of 73.3% is the lowest among nearby virtual competitors like Maize Virtual Preparatory School (91.7%) and Oxford Online Virtual School (83.3%), it does represent an improvement from the prior year. Academically, the school’s test scores are middling, with English Language Arts proficiency (41.17%) slightly below state averages and Math proficiency (23.52%) well below.

A key concern for parents is value. Derby Virtual School spends $12,834 per student, which is more than double the spending of Maize Virtual Preparatory School ($5,571), yet Maize achieves far superior test scores and a higher graduation rate. This contrast is stark, especially when compared to the high-performing Andover eCademy, which serves over 3,600 students with a high student-to-teacher ratio but still produces solid academic outcomes. For parents considering Derby Virtual School, the data suggests a program that has recently undergone a dramatic turnaround but still lags behind other virtual options in the region in terms of both cost-effectiveness and student success.