Summary:
ZIP code 57719 has three schools serving grades 4–12: Vandenberg Elementary (grades 4–5), Douglas Middle School (grades 6–8), and Douglas High School (grades 9–12), with 1,826 students altogether. The clearest concern is middle-school math: Douglas Middle’s 2025–26 proficiency was 27%, compared with 44% statewide, and it was below the state in every grade, with the largest gap—18 points—in grade 7.
Vandenberg stands out among the two schools with comparable Smarter Balanced results: its all-grade proficiency was 50% in ELA and 42% in math, versus 43% and 27% at Douglas Middle—a 7-point ELA difference and a 14-point math difference. Vandenberg’s ELA was 1 point above the state, while Douglas Middle was 6 points below; both were below the state in math, by 2 and 17 points, respectively. At Douglas High, grade 11 ACT ELA was 1 point above the state, but science was 9 points below and math 4 points below. Its graduation rate was 4 points below the state, and its dropout rate was 1 point higher.
Recent trends are mixed: Vandenberg’s ELA improved by 4 points from 2024–25 to 2025–26, while its math slipped by less than a point; Douglas Middle’s ELA fell by 2 points and math by 1. SchoolDigger’s rankings also moved in different directions from 2023–24 to 2025–26: Vandenberg fell 16 percentile points, Douglas Middle fell 6, and Douglas High rose 5. For context, 2024–25 student-teacher ratios ranged from 14.1 at Douglas Middle to 17.1 at Douglas High; free/reduced lunch eligible shares that year were 41% at Vandenberg, 38% at Douglas Middle, and 31% at Douglas High. These measures provide context, not explanations for results. The high school’s ACT results are not directly comparable with the other schools’ Smarter Balanced results, and the schools serve different grades.
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