Summary
Williams Elementary is a public school in Virginia Beach, VA, serving 443 students in only 4th and 5th grades as part of Virginia Beach City Public Schools, a district ranked in the 78th percentile statewide. The school sits within an unusual split-grade campus pattern: Diamond Springs Elementary (PK–1) is 0.42 miles away, Newtown Elementary (grades 2–3) is just 0.25 miles away, and Williams serves the upper grades. The school serves a high-poverty population — 85.6% of students qualified for free/reduced lunch in 2024–2025 — and chronic absenteeism runs at 17.5%, well above the district's 10.1% rate.
Academically, Williams is a significant outlier to its district's overall strength. In 2025–2026, it ranked 1,024th out of 1,111 Virginia elementary schools, placing it in the 8th percentile with a 0-star rating. Proficiency rates are far below district and state averages in every tested subject. Only 38.8% of 4th graders passed the math SOL, compared to 77.1% districtwide, and 5th grade math proficiency was 49.4% versus 77.9% districtwide. Reading is a relative strength — roughly 59% proficiency — but still about 20 points below the district. Nearby schools tell a mixed story: Thoroughgood Elementary ranks in the 94th percentile with just 18.4% poverty, but Pembroke Meadows Elementary achieves a 74th percentile ranking despite 68.7% of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch, showing that high poverty does not make high performance impossible.
Williams actually spends more per student ($17,305) and has smaller class sizes (12.5:1) than several higher-performing neighbors, including Thoroughgood ($12,759 per student), which suggests funding alone is not moving the needle. The most urgent levers appear to be math instruction, chronic absenteeism, and support for specific student groups. Male students, students with disabilities, and military-connected students all perform in the bottom single digits of state percentiles. There is some encouraging news: chronic absenteeism has fallen from 27.1% to 17.5% over three years, and science and Virginia Studies scores have improved. Still, nearly every measured student population at Williams is performing in the bottom quarter of Virginia schools, and reversing that pattern will require deliberate, data-driven intervention.
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