1
Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at SOUTHSIDE STEM ACADEMY AT CAMPOSTELLA?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
686
Elementary
DISTRICT 435 · STATE 499
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·NORFOLK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 510267001085
Southside STEM Academy at Campostella
1106 Campostella Rd., Norfolk, VA 23523 · (757) 628-2555 · Norfolk city
GRADES KG–08ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL686 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 5% of Virginia public elementary schools
- FTest 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
12.0:1
57 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.6:1 · STATE 13.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
98%
675 students
DISTRICT 99% · 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 | 83 | 12% |
| Grade 1 | 77 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 79 | 12% |
| Grade 3 | 80 | 12% |
| Grade 4 | 65 | 9% |
| Grade 5 | 70 | 10% |
| Grade 6 | 78 | 11% |
| Grade 7 | 82 | 12% |
| Grade 8 | 72 | 10% |
This year's kindergarten class (83) is 15% larger than its 8th grade class (72).
Student demographics
23%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 63% · 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
50.0%
VA avg 74.2% . +11.0pp since 2022
Math
49.0%
VA avg 72.7% . +25.0pp since 2022
What this means: On the SOL, Virginia's statewide test, about 50 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 49 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Virginia schools, those numbers are about 74 and 73. Reading and writing scores are up about 11 points since 2022, while math scores are up about 25 points.
SOL results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 50.0% | 49.0% |
| 2023-24 | 45.0% | 36.0% |
| 2022-23 | 39.0% | 24.0% |
% 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
42.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
61.3%
based on VA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-19.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 42% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 61% 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 Southside STEM Academy at Campostella
Southside STEM Academy at Campostella's state test result (42.0% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southside STEM Academy at Campostella this school | 686 | 98.4% | 42.0% |
| Jacox Elementary Norfolk | 596 | 99.3% | 32.5% |
| Walnut Hill Elementary Petersburg | 574 | 93.7% | 36.9% |
| Discovery STEM Academy Newport News | 561 | 98.9% | 47.3% |
| Cool Spring Elementary Petersburg | 540 | 94.3% | 29.9% |
| Henry Marsh III Elementary Richmond | 512 | 97.7% | 34.5% |
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 Southside STEM Academy at Campostella ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Virginia | In Norfolk city |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 42.0% | #1,050 of 1,101 | #25 of 29 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 49.0% | #1,036 of 1,111 ▲ 53 | #24 of 29 ▲ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 50.0% | #1,012 of 1,111 ▲ 46 | #27 of 29 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 686 | #205 of 1,176 | #2 of 32 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.0:1 | #182 of 1,105 | #8 of 30 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 22.9% | #1,028 of 1,106 | #27 of 30 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 98.4% | #204 of 1,157 | #30 of 32 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -21.8% | #142 of 759 | #9 of 27 |
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
686
-73 (-10%) vs 2020
-2% since 1990-91, when it was 702
Student : Teacher
12.0:1
was 12.7:1
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 | 686 | 57 | 12.0:1 | 98% (675) |
| 2023-24 | 701 | 60 | 11.7:1 | 99% (694) |
| 2022-23 | 737 | 58 | 12.7:1 | 95% (701) |
| 2020-21 | 759 | 60 | 12.7:1 | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 877 | 63 | 13.9:1 | 99% (864) |
| 2015-16 | 640 | 46 | 13.9:1 | 62% (396) |
| 2010-11 | 708 | 52 | 13.6:1 | 96% (682) |
| 2000-01 | 675 | 57 | 11.8:1 | 86% (579) |
| 1990-91 | 702 | 51 | 13.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Southside STEM Academy at Campostella.
Since 2017-18: students down 22% (877 to 686); teachers down 9% (63 to 57).
About Southside STEM Academy at Campostella
Southside STEM Academy at Campostella is a medium-sized elementary school in Norfolk, Virginia. The school's 686 students are in kindergarten through 8. Enrollment is 37% higher than the average for elementary schools in Virginia, which is about 499.
Norfolk City Public Schools is made up of 44 schools with 26,807 students in all.
At Southside STEM Academy at Campostella, Black students make up 87% of the student body. Other students are 7% Hispanic and 4% multiracial. By comparison, Norfolk city residents are about 40% Black. Southside STEM Academy at Campostella has a diversity index of 23%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
The school reports 57 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to about 12.0 students per teacher. The 13.8:1 average for elementary schools in Virginia is higher than this school's figure. The free or reduced-price lunch share, often used to gauge student poverty, is 98%. Across public schools in Norfolk city, the average is about the same, 98%.
Measured against Virginia public elementary schools, Southside STEM Academy at Campostella 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.
Southside STEM Academy at Campostella scores 19.3 points below its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests: 42.0% actual versus 61.3% predicted. That puts it in the bottom 10% of Virginia schools on BeatsExpectations.
Among Norfolk city residents, median household income is about $66,109, roughly 34% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 12% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Federal data list 54 public schools in Norfolk city, with a combined enrollment of about 26,807.
Nearest public school: Berkley/Campostella Early Childhood Education Center, about 0.3 miles away. Other public schools within five miles: at least 8. Compared with its nearest neighbors, Southside STEM Academy at Campostella ranks 6th of 8 on average proficiency.
Federal records code the school's setting as City: Mid-size.
Enrollment was 759 in 2020-21 and 686 in 2024-25, a decrease of 73 students.
Conversations here can range across sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
Norfolk city at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
233,596
Census ACS
Median income
$66,109
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
34%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
12%
Below federal line
Schools in county
54
26,807 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Norfolk City Public Schools
- Granby HighHigh · 1,980 students
- Matthew Fontaine Maury HighHigh · 1,713 students
- Norview HighHigh · 1,585 students
- Norview MiddleMiddle · 1,196 students
- Blair MiddleMiddle · 1,141 students
- Lake Taylor HighHigh · 1,107 students
Other schools in Norfolk
- Granby HighHigh · 1,980 students
- Matthew Fontaine Maury HighHigh · 1,713 students
- Norview HighHigh · 1,585 students
- Norview MiddleMiddle · 1,196 students
- Blair MiddleMiddle · 1,141 students
- Lake Taylor HighHigh · 1,107 students
Nearby schools
- Berkley/Campostella Early Childhood Education Center0.3 mi · 165
- Thurgood Marshall Elementary1.1 mi · 395
- Chesterfield Elementary1.1 mi · 325
- St. Helena Elementary1.4 mi · 229
- Ruffner School1.5 mi · 576
- Norfolk Highlands Primary1.5 mi · 294
Frequently asked questions
About Southside STEM Academy at CampostellaWhat is the total enrollment at Southside STEM Academy at Campostella?
Southside STEM Academy at Campostella enrolls approximately 686 students in grades KG-08.
What age range does Southside STEM Academy at Campostella serve?
Southside STEM Academy at Campostella serves students from grade KG through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Southside STEM Academy at Campostella?
Approximately 12.0:1 students per teacher at Southside STEM Academy at Campostella.
How diverse is Southside STEM Academy at Campostella?
Southside STEM Academy at Campostella reports a student body of 1% White, 7% Hispanic, 87% Black, 0% Asian, 4% Two or more.
What district is Southside STEM Academy at Campostella in?
Southside STEM Academy at Campostella is part of Norfolk City Public Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.