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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Cool Spring Elementary?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
540
Elementary
DISTRICT 484 · STATE 499
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PETERSBURG CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 510291001202
Cool Spring Elementary
1450 Talley Avenue, Petersburg, VA 23803 · (804) 862-7002 · Petersburg city
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL540 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
14.6:1
37 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.7:1 · STATE 13.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
94%
509 students
DISTRICT 93% · STATE 66%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 68 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 101 | 19% |
| Grade 2 | 91 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 86 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 101 | 19% |
| Grade 5 | 93 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (68) is 27% smaller than its 5th grade class (93).
Student demographics
26%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 32% · STATE 71% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Based on grade levels within Petersburg City Public Schools. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
SOL 2024-25 . % PassingEnglish Language Arts
36.0%
VA avg 74.2% . +0.0pp since 2022
Math
34.0%
VA avg 72.7% . +5.0pp since 2022
What this means: On the SOL, Virginia's statewide test, about 36 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 34 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Virginia schools, those numbers are about 74 and 73. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2022, while math scores are up about 5 points.
SOL results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 36.0% | 34.0% |
| 2023-24 | 38.0% | 35.0% |
| 2022-23 | 36.0% | 29.0% |
% Passing, all students and all tested grades.
Source: SOL. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of VA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
29.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
62.4%
based on VA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-32.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 30% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 62% typical for Virginia schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Cool Spring Elementary
Cool Spring Elementary's state test result (29.9% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cool Spring Elementary this school | 540 | 94.3% | 29.9% |
| Walnut Hill Elementary Petersburg | 574 | 93.7% | 36.9% |
| Henry Marsh III Elementary Richmond | 512 | 97.7% | 34.5% |
| Discovery STEM Academy Newport News | 561 | 98.9% | 47.3% |
| Jacox Elementary Norfolk | 596 | 99.3% | 32.5% |
| Brighton Elementary Portsmouth | 483 | 99.4% | 41.3% |
Matched among Virginia elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Cool Spring Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Virginia |
|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 29.9% | #1,095 of 1,101 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 34.0% | #1,102 of 1,111 ▼ 8 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 36.0% | #1,101 of 1,111 ▼ 9 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 540 | #483 of 1,176 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.6:1 | #693 of 1,105 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 26.2% | #1,011 of 1,106 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 94.3% | #262 of 1,157 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +7.1% | #165 of 324 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
540
+29 (+6%) vs 2020
+39% since 1990-91, when it was 388
Student : Teacher
14.6:1
was 14.2:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 540 | 37 | 14.6:1 | 94% (509) |
| 2023-24 | 529 | 37 | 14.3:1 | N/A |
| 2022-23 | 530 | 38 | 13.9:1 | N/A |
| 2020-21 | 511 | 36 | 14.2:1 | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 504 | 35 | 14.4:1 | 99% (498) |
| 2015-16 | 436 | 31 | 14.1:1 | 98% (426) |
| 2010-11 | 601 | 32 | 18.8:1 | 80% (482) |
| 2000-01 | 397 | 32 | 12.4:1 | 87% (346) |
| 1990-91 | 388 | 23 | 16.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Cool Spring Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 7% (504 to 540); teachers up 6% (35 to 37).
About Cool Spring Elementary
Cool Spring Elementary is a medium-sized elementary school in Petersburg, Virginia, one of the schools in Petersburg City Public Schools. It enrolled 540 students in kindergarten through 5 for the 2024-25 school year.
The 7 schools in Petersburg City Public Schools enroll 4,582 students altogether, Cool Spring Elementary among them.
About 85% of the student body at Cool Spring Elementary is Black. The rest of enrollment is 9% Hispanic and 4% White. Census estimates put the Black share of Petersburg city's population at about 77%. Cool Spring Elementary's diversity index is 26%, against a US figure of 70%.
Federal staffing data show 37 full-time-equivalent teachers at Cool Spring Elementary and a ratio of 14.6:1. The school has more students per teacher than the 13.8:1 average for elementary schools in Virginia. The count of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch equals 94% of enrollment. For comparison, public schools in Petersburg city average 92%.
On allk12's BeatsExpectations measure, Cool Spring Elementary is among the bottom 10% of schools in Virginia. Predicted: 62.4%. Actual: 29.9%.
Cool Spring Elementary is located in Petersburg city, where the median household income is $50,698, 25% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 20% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Cool Spring Elementary is one of 9 public schools in the county.
The school nearest to Cool Spring Elementary is Westview Early Childhood Education Center, at a distance of about 0.6 miles. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. Of the 8 nearby schools with scores, including this one, Cool Spring Elementary is 6th on average proficiency.
The school's federal locale classification is Suburb: Large.
Enrollment at Cool Spring Elementary climbed 6% between 2020-21 and 2024-25, from 511 to 540 students.
Topics for discussion here include science fairs, picture day, and bus routes. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Petersburg city at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
33,537
Census ACS
Median income
$50,698
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
25%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
20%
Below federal line
Schools in county
9
4,582 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Petersburg City Public Schools
- Petersburg HighHigh · 1,215 students
- Vernon Johns MiddleMiddle · 949 students
- Walnut Hill ElementaryElementary · 574 students
- Pleasants Lane ElementaryElementary · 493 students
- Westview Early Childhood Education CenterElementary · 418 students
- Lakemont ElementaryElementary · 393 students
Other schools in Petersburg
- Petersburg HighHigh · 1,215 students
- Vernon Johns MiddleMiddle · 949 students
- Walnut Hill ElementaryElementary · 574 students
- Pleasants Lane ElementaryElementary · 493 students
- Westview Early Childhood Education CenterElementary · 418 students
- Lakemont ElementaryElementary · 393 students
Other Cool Spring Elementary schools
4 other US public schools in 3 states are named Cool Spring Elementary. Cool Spring Elementary is the 3rd largest of the 5.
- Cool Spring ElementaryMechanicsville, VA · 852 students
- Cool Spring ElementaryLeesburg, VA · 591 students
- Cool Spring ElementaryAdelphi, MD · 458 students
- Cool Spring ElementaryCleveland, NC · 447 students
Nearby schools
- Westview Early Childhood Education Center0.6 mi · 418
- Pleasants Lane Elementary1.0 mi · 493
- Petersburg High1.6 mi · 1,215
- Walnut Hill Elementary1.7 mi · 574
- Vernon Johns Middle1.7 mi · 949
- Ettrick Elementary2.3 mi · 560
Frequently asked questions
About Cool Spring ElementaryHow many students attend Cool Spring Elementary?
Cool Spring Elementary enrolls approximately 540 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does Cool Spring Elementary serve?
Cool Spring Elementary serves grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Cool Spring Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Cool Spring Elementary is approximately 14.6:1 (37 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Cool Spring Elementary?
Cool Spring Elementary reports a student body of 4% White, 9% Hispanic, 85% Black, 1% Asian, 1% Two or more.
Who oversees Cool Spring Elementary?
Cool Spring Elementary is overseen by Petersburg City Public Schools in Petersburg city.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.