Dearington Elementary/Innovation

Dearington Elementary/Innovation is a rural-scale elementary school in Lynchburg, Virginia, part of Lynchburg City Public Schools. The school teaches 180 students in grades pre-K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 64% leaner than the state mean of about 499.

Lynchburg City Public Schools comprises 16 schools with combined enrollment of 7,657 students; Dearington Elementary/Innovation is among them.

On the student-mix side, Dearington Elementary/Innovation lists that 65% of the student body identifies as Black. Beyond that, the school reports 16% White, 12% multiracial, 6% Hispanic. The wider county runs roughly 27% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, Dearington Elementary/Innovation has 19 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 9.5:1. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Around 98% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Dearington Elementary/Innovation performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 61.3%, the actual is 62.9%, a residual of +1.6 points.

In the surrounding community, census data for Lynchburg city shows the typical household earns roughly $57,947 per year, 39% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly 12% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Lynchburg city runs 24 public schools (combined enrollment of about 7,657 students), of which Dearington Elementary/Innovation is one.

Nearest neighbor: E.C. Glass High, around 0.4 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Dearington Elementary/Innovation. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Dearington Elementary/Innovation at 3rd of 9; the average score across the group is 54.7%.

The school occupies a metropolitan site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Dearington Elementary/Innovation has stayed largely flat, going from 183 students in 2018 to 180 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share edged down from 83% to 65%. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 13.1:1 in 2018 to 9.5:1 today.

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