Best Elementary Schools in Zip Code 23455

Zip code 23455 contains six elementary schools — Thoroughgood Elementary, Hermitage Elementary, Bayside Elementary, Pembroke Meadows Elementary, Luxford Elementary, and Shelton Park Elementary — all serving grades PK-5 under Virginia Beach City Public Schools, with a combined enrollment of 3,242 students. While the district ranks 29th of 131 Virginia districts (78th percentile, 4 stars), the schools in this zip code span a dramatic range, from a top-10% Virginia elementary school to one in the bottom 20%.

Thoroughgood Elementary is the clear standout: ranked 63rd in Virginia (94th percentile, 5 stars), it boasts a 90.3% average SOL proficiency rate, the lowest poverty rate in the group at 18.4%, and the lowest chronic absenteeism at just 3.9% — all while spending the least per student ($12,759) and having the highest student-teacher ratio (18.4). At the opposite end, Bayside Elementary ranks 928th (16th percentile, 1 star) with only 58.8% average SOL proficiency, an 86.1% poverty rate, and below-state-average scores on every single test metric. The clearest momentum story is Shelton Park Elementary, which jumped from the 67th to the 77th percentile in one year, raising its average SOL proficiency from 79.5% to 83.8%, including a 20-point swing in 5th-grade math.

Perhaps the most striking pattern is that money and smaller classes do not predict success. The two lowest-performing schools, Bayside Elementary and Luxford Elementary, have the lowest student-teacher ratios (11.7 and 12.1) and the highest per-student spending ($16,241 and $16,782), while the highest-performing school spends the least. Poverty and attendance tell a clearer story: the three highest-poverty schools are the three lowest-performing, and the two schools exceeding the district's 10.1% chronic absenteeism average — Luxford (11.9%) and Bayside (11.0%) — are also the lowest-ranked. Families in 23455 can find very different educational environments within a few miles: Thoroughgood, Shelton Park, and Pembroke Meadows all exceeded state averages in every subject in 2025-2026, while Bayside fell short across the board.