Schools in Zip Code 23085

ZIP code 23085, located in King and Queen Court House, VA, is served by exactly two public schools within the King and Queen County Public Schools district: Central High (grades 7–12, 265 students) and King & Queen Elementary (PK–6, 168 students). There is no standalone middle school, so 7th and 8th graders share a campus with high school students. The district ranks 111 out of 131 Virginia districts, though both schools recently earned 2 stars on SchoolDigger's scale, indicating individual improvement.

The two schools tell very different stories. Central High excels at keeping students on track to graduation, with a 94.4% graduation rate and just a 1.8% dropout rate — both better than state averages. However, academic proficiency in the middle grades is a major concern: only 5.88% of 7th graders and 17.65% of 8th graders are proficient in math, compared to roughly half of students statewide. By contrast, King & Queen Elementary is improving rapidly. Its state ranking jumped from the 18th percentile to the 40th percentile in two years, and 5th-grade math proficiency now sits at 85.71% — well above the state average of 72.39%. Third-grade reading also improved dramatically, from 33.33% to 70% in a single year.

Chronic absenteeism is a district-wide red flag: 26.6% of Central High students and 19.0% of elementary students are chronically absent, compared to 14.8% statewide. Both schools serve predominantly low-income families, and per-student spending differs notably, with Central High spending $13,550 compared to $9,446 at the elementary school. The sharp decline in math proficiency between 5th grade (85.71%) and 7th grade (5.88%) represents the most striking finding in the data, suggesting the middle-school transition is a critical vulnerability in this small district. Overall, the elementary school is trending upward while the high school graduates students successfully — but the academic gaps in the middle grades and absenteeism remain serious challenges.