Summary:
Zip code 24540 in Danville, Virginia contains just one high school, R.I.S.E Academy at the John M. Langston Campus, which serves grades 6 through 12 with 163 students as part of Danville City Public Schools. R.I.S.E Academy is the sole high school option in this zip code, and it faces severe challenges that make it an outlier among Virginia schools. The school has ranked dead last in the state for three consecutive years, placing 331st out of 331 in 2025-2026, 328th out of 328 in 2024-2025, and 328th out of 329 in 2023-2024.
The graduation crisis at R.I.S.E Academy is the most urgent concern. Only 48.3% of students graduate on time, compared to 78.2% districtwide and 92.3% statewide, while the dropout rate of 38.7% is 2.9 times the district rate and 7.7 times the state rate. Chronic absenteeism affects 48.9% of students, meaning nearly one in two students is missing significant school time, compared to just 11.7% in the district and 14.8% statewide. Test scores are dramatically below benchmarks: Biology proficiency is just 3.7%, World History I is 8.9%, and math proficiency ranges from 8.6% to 9.5% in grades 6 through 8, trailing state averages by roughly 40 to 50 points.
The school serves a high-need population, with 61.96% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. However, spending of $11,525 per student and a 13:1 student-teacher ratio show that resources and class sizes are not the primary obstacles. The consistent bottom-of-state ranking and the combination of high dropout rates, low graduation, severe chronic absenteeism, and near-universal academic underperformance point to deep, systemic issues requiring urgent and comprehensive intervention to help students re-engage and recover academically.
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