1
What's one thing Robert S. Payne Elementary gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
435
Elementary
DISTRICT 336 · STATE 499
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·LYNCHBURG CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 510234000965
Robert S. Payne Elementary
1201 Floyd St, Lynchburg, VA 24501 · (434) 515-5270 · Lynchburg city
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL435 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 8% of Virginia public elementary schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Virginia public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
13.2:1
33 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.0:1 · STATE 13.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
97%
423 students
DISTRICT 95% · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 51 | 12% |
| Kindergarten | 50 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 59 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 62 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 71 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 81 | 19% |
| Grade 5 | 61 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (50) is 18% smaller than its 5th grade class (61).
Student demographics
54%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 65% · 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
Test scores
SOL 2024-25 . % PassingEnglish Language Arts
44.0%
VA avg 74.2% . -8.0pp since 2022
Math
44.0%
VA avg 72.7% . +1.0pp since 2022
What this means: On the SOL, Virginia's statewide test, about 44 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 44 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Virginia schools, those numbers are about 74 and 73. Reading and writing scores are down about 8 points since 2022, while math scores are up about 1 points.
SOL results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 44.0% | 44.0% |
| 2023-24 | 57.0% | 50.0% |
| 2022-23 | 52.0% | 43.0% |
% 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
46.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
61.6%
based on VA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-14.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 47% 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 Robert S. Payne Elementary
Robert S. Payne Elementary's state test result (46.9% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert S. Payne Elementary this school | 435 | 97.2% | 46.9% |
| Sussex Central Elementary Stony Creek | 478 | 99.4% | 73.1% |
| Westhaven Elementary Portsmouth | 401 | 100.0% | 35.6% |
| Christopher C. Kraft Elementary Hampton | 452 | 92.3% | 66.9% |
| Chase City Elementary Chase City | 396 | 94.9% | 58.1% |
| Luther W. Machen Elementary Hampton | 430 | 95.1% | 65.5% |
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 Robert S. Payne Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Virginia | In Lynchburg city |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 46.9% | #1,013 of 1,101 | #9 of 11 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 44.0% | #1,067 of 1,111 ▼ 93 | #10 of 11 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 44.0% | #1,061 of 1,111 ▼ 142 | #10 of 11 ▼ 3 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 435 | #739 of 1,176 | #3 of 11 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.2:1 | #383 of 1,105 | #6 of 8 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 53.9% | #695 of 1,106 | #8 of 8 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 97.2% | #226 of 1,157 | #4 of 11 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -17.6% | #231 of 759 | #3 of 8 |
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
435
-32 (-7%) vs 2020
-21% since 1990-91, when it was 550
Student : Teacher
13.2:1
was 13.7:1
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 | 435 | 33 | 13.2:1 | 97% (423) |
| 2023-24 | 466 | 37.5 | 12.4:1 | 98% (459) |
| 2022-23 | 460 | 32.5 | 14.2:1 | 96% (442) |
| 2020-21 | 467 | 34 | 13.7:1 | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 528 | 33 | 16.0:1 | 91% (481) |
| 2015-16 | 581 | 28 | 20.8:1 | 87% (505) |
| 2010-11 | 608 | 29 | 21.0:1 | 75% (453) |
| 2000-01 | 460 | 40 | 11.5:1 | 73% (336) |
| 1990-91 | 550 | 34 | 16.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Robert S. Payne Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 18% (528 to 435); teachers unchanged (33 to 33).
About Robert S. Payne Elementary
Robert S. Payne Elementary is a medium-sized elementary school in Virginia, with an address in Lynchburg. The student body numbers 435 students, from pre-K through 5.
Lynchburg City Public Schools serves 7,657 students across 16 schools.
A majority of students at Robert S. Payne Elementary, 64%, are Black. The rest of enrollment is 18% White, 9% multiracial, and 8% Hispanic. Among all residents of Lynchburg city, the Black share is about 27%. The chance that two students picked at random at Robert S. Payne Elementary belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 54%.
Federal data list 33 full-time-equivalent teachers at Robert S. Payne Elementary in 2024-25, for a ratio of 13.2:1. Elementary schools in Virginia average about 13.8:1, a similar figure. The school's rate of free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is 97%. Across public schools in Lynchburg city, the average is about the same, 95%.
Measured against Virginia public elementary schools, Robert S. Payne Elementary receives a D. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
Given its lunch-eligibility share, the predicted average proficiency rate on state tests for Robert S. Payne Elementary is 61.6%. It actually posts 46.9%, which is 14.8 points lower and in the bottom 10% of Virginia schools.
Lynchburg city census figures show that median household income is about $57,947, about 39% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 12%. A total of 24 public schools operate in Lynchburg city, serving about 7,657 students.
The next-closest public school is Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle for Innovation, about 0.3 miles away. There are at least 8 more public schools inside five miles. Robert S. Payne Elementary's average proficiency of 46.9% compares with 57.0% for its nearest scored neighbors.
On the NCES locale scale, the school is City: Small.
Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, the student count declined from 467 to 435.
To ask about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater, start a discussion on this page. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Lynchburg city at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
79,497
Census ACS
Median income
$57,947
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
39%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
12%
Below federal line
Schools in county
24
7,657 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Lynchburg City Public Schools
- E.C. Glass HighHigh · 1,220 students
- Heritage HighHigh · 1,113 students
- Sandusky MiddleMiddle · 583 students
- Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle for InnovationMiddle · 531 students
- Linkhorne MiddleMiddle · 519 students
- Heritage ElementaryElementary · 448 students
Other schools in Lynchburg
- E.C. Glass HighHigh · 1,220 students
- Heritage HighHigh · 1,113 students
- Brookville HighHigh · 1,017 students
- Tomahawk ElementaryElementary · 667 students
- Brookville MiddleMiddle · 648 students
- Leesville Road ElementaryElementary · 646 students
Nearby schools
- Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle for Innovation0.3 mi · 531
- E.C. Glass High0.9 mi · 1,220
- Dearington Elementary/Innovation0.9 mi · 180
- T.C. Miller Elementary School for Innovation1.0 mi · 168
- William M. Bass Elementary1.1 mi · 188
- Madison Heights Elementary2.1 mi · 449
Frequently asked questions
About Robert S. Payne ElementaryWhat is the total enrollment at Robert S. Payne Elementary?
Robert S. Payne Elementary enrolls approximately 435 students in grades PK-05.
Is Robert S. Payne Elementary an elementary, middle, or high school?
Robert S. Payne Elementary is an elementary school covering grades PK-05.
How many teachers does Robert S. Payne Elementary have?
Robert S. Payne Elementary employs 33 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.2:1.
What is the student diversity at Robert S. Payne Elementary?
Student demographics at Robert S. Payne Elementary are roughly 18% White, 8% Hispanic, 64% Black, 1% Asian, 9% Two or more.
Who oversees Robert S. Payne Elementary?
Robert S. Payne Elementary is overseen by Lynchburg City Public Schools in Lynchburg city.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.