Summary:
ZIP code 23220 in Richmond, Virginia contains just two high schools, both belonging to Richmond City Public Schools: Richmond Success Academy, serving grades 6-12 with 277 students, and Open High, serving grades 9-12 with 171 students. These two schools share the same neighborhood and district, yet they sit at opposite extremes of Virginia's high school rankings.
Open High is one of the best high schools in the state, ranking 5th, 3rd, and 5th out of roughly 330 schools over the past three years. It maintains a 100% graduation rate, a 0% dropout rate, and chronic absenteeism of just 4.6%, compared to the state rate of 14.8%. Its SOL proficiency rates frequently reach 95-100% in subjects like Algebra II, Geometry, Biology, English Reading, and Writing. By contrast, Richmond Success Academy has ranked 330th, 327th, and 329th out of approximately 330 schools over the same period. Its graduation rate is just 43.5%, its dropout rate is 39.4%, and chronic absenteeism is a staggering 65.5%. Some 8th-grade proficiency rates at Richmond Success Academy fall to 0% in English Reading and 4.55% in Science, indicating severe struggles that begin before high school.
Perhaps the most striking finding is that both schools have similar student-teacher ratios (8.3 for Richmond Success Academy, 9.1 for Open High), so class size alone does not explain the dramatic gap. Open High also reports a free/reduced lunch rate above 100%, showing that high-poverty students can achieve elite results when supported effectively. Meanwhile, the district as a whole is ranked 118th out of 131 districts with just one star, demonstrating that district-level ratings can conceal enormous variation between schools. For parents, this ZIP code proves that school quality can differ profoundly even within the same neighborhood, and that individual school performance—not ZIP code or district averages—should drive school choice decisions.
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