Summary:
Inside the Community School of Digital and Visual A district, there is one school: Community School of Digital & Visual Art, a K-8 school in Durham, NC, enrolling 204 students. Although the state labels it an elementary school, it serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It is a very high-poverty school, with 98.53% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, and it carries the district's entire ranking.
The school is struggling academically. Its current state rating is 1 star, placing it in the 13th percentile of all North Carolina schools, and the district itself holds a 0-star rating in the bottom 4% of districts. During the 2025-26 school year, average math proficiency was 34.1% versus the state's 59.2%; reading was 25.9% versus 56.1%; and 8th-grade science was 25.0% versus 68.6%. There were only rare bright spots, such as 6th-grade math at 60% proficient, just above the state's 59.2%. The pattern is particularly concerning in math, where proficiency drops from 56.3% in 3rd grade to just 6.3% by 8th grade, and reading remains weak at every grade level.
The school also faces serious attendance barriers. In 2024-25, 35% of students were chronically absent, compared to 24.2% statewide. With just 204 students spread across grades K-8, test results swing dramatically from year to year; for example, 8th-grade math proficiency fell from 50.0% in 2024-25 to 6.3% in 2025-26. State percentile rankings have bounced from 17th to 5th to 13th over three years. In short, this is a single high-poverty school facing major academic obstacles, with isolated bright spots rather than systemic improvement.
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