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What's the most underrated thing about WILBUR S. PENCE MIDDLE that outsiders don't know?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
671
Middle
DISTRICT 638 · STATE 750
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ROCKINGHAM COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 510339001511
Wilbur S. Pence Middle
375 Bowman Road, Dayton, VA 22821 · (540) 879-2535 · Rockingham County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE23-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL671 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 30% of Virginia public middle schools
- C+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C-Beats 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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
12.8:1
52 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.5:1 · STATE 13.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
43%
289 students
DISTRICT 59% · STATE 66%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 222 | 33% |
| Grade 7 | 214 | 32% |
| Grade 8 | 235 | 35% |
Student demographics
45%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 48% · 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
62.0%
VA avg 74.2% . -2.0pp since 2022
Math
66.0%
VA avg 72.7% . +1.0pp since 2022
What this means: On the SOL, Virginia's statewide test, about 62 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 66 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 2 points since 2022, while math scores are up about 1 points.
SOL results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 62.0% | 66.0% |
| 2023-24 | 63.0% | 62.0% |
| 2022-23 | 64.0% | 65.0% |
% Passing, all students and all tested grades.
Source: SOL. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
66.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
76.4%
based on VA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-10.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 66% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 76% typical for Virginia schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Virginia's top nor bottom 10%.
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 Wilbur S. Pence Middle
Wilbur S. Pence Middle's state test result (66.1% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilbur S. Pence Middle this school | 671 | 43.1% | 66.1% |
| Frederick County Middle Winchester | 732 | 37.6% | 54.6% |
| Liberty Middle Ashland | 910 | 44.8% | 73.1% |
| Montevideo Middle Penn Laird | 593 | 37.3% | 75.3% |
| Robert E. Aylor Middle White Post | 861 | 37.2% | 62.3% |
| Christiansburg Middle Christiansburg | 778 | 38.9% | 68.4% |
Matched among Virginia middle 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 Wilbur S. Pence Middle ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Virginia |
|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 66.1% | #203 of 337 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 66.0% | #190 of 342 ▲ 20 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 62.0% | #268 of 342 ▼ 27 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 671 | #192 of 343 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.8:1 | #143 of 327 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 44.9% | #250 of 333 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 43.1% | #239 of 340 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -7.3% | #154 of 224 |
Ranked against other public middle 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
671
-64 (-9%) vs 2020
+2% since 1990-91, when it was 655
Student : Teacher
12.8:1
was 13.6:1
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 | 671 | 52.4 | 12.8:1 | 43% (289) |
| 2023-24 | 669 | 53.2 | 12.6:1 | 42% (278) |
| 2022-23 | 668 | 54 | 12.4:1 | 39% (261) |
| 2020-21 | 735 | 54 | 13.6:1 | N/A |
| 2017-18 | 724 | 53.9 | 13.4:1 | 44% (315) |
| 2015-16 | 709 | 48 | 14.8:1 | 38% (266) |
| 2010-11 | 702 | 44 | 15.9:1 | 34% (238) |
| 2000-01 | 809 | 67 | 12.1:1 | 23% (184) |
| 1990-91 | 655 | 44 | 14.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Wilbur S. Pence Middle.
Since 2017-18: students down 7% (724 to 671); teachers down 3% (53.9 to 52.4).
About Wilbur S. Pence Middle
As a medium-sized middle-grades school, Wilbur S. Pence Middle serves students in Dayton, Virginia. Grades offered run from 6 through 8, with 671 students enrolled.
Rockingham County Public Schools is responsible for 23 schools, Wilbur S. Pence Middle included, with 11,679 students in all.
A majority of students at Wilbur S. Pence Middle, 71%, are White. Other reported shares: 19% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, and 3% Black. Rockingham County's residents are about 86% White, 15 points above the school's share. Wilbur S. Pence Middle has a diversity index of 45%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Wilbur S. Pence Middle operates with 52.4 full-time-equivalent teachers, a ratio of about 12.8:1. Middle schools in Virginia average about 13.1:1, a similar figure. Wilbur S. Pence Middle reports 43% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. The 54% average for public schools in Rockingham County is 11 points higher.
The allk12 Grade for Wilbur S. Pence Middle is C. Compared with Virginia public middle schools, the school scored higher than 30% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
Wilbur S. Pence Middle posts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 66.1%, compared with a predicted 76.4%. It is not in the top or bottom 10% of Virginia schools on BeatsExpectations.
Within Rockingham County, median household income is about $80,693, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 29%, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. The public schools of Rockingham County number 22 and enroll about 11,397.
Nearest public school: John W. Wayland Elementary, about 1.7 miles away. Other public schools within five miles: at least 8. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 61.5%; Wilbur S. Pence Middle's is 66.1%, ranking 4th of 8.
Wilbur S. Pence Middle has an NCES locale of Suburb: Small.
From 2020-21 to 2024-25, Wilbur S. Pence Middle went from 735 students to 671.
Topics for discussion here include school safety, transportation, and start times. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Rockingham County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
85,600
Census ACS
Median income
$80,693
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
29%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
22
11,397 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Rockingham County Public Schools
- Turner Ashby HighHigh · 998 students
- Broadway HighHigh · 932 students
- Spotswood HighHigh · 880 students
- East Rockingham HighHigh · 821 students
- J. Frank Hillyard MiddleMiddle · 726 students
- Cub Run ElementaryElementary · 614 students
Nearby schools
- John W. Wayland Elementary1.7 mi · 526
- Turner Ashby High1.8 mi · 998
- Pleasant Valley Elementary2.4 mi · 282
- Harrisonburg High2.5 mi · 998
- Rocktown High2.6 mi · 1,011
- Bluestone Elementary2.8 mi · 566
Frequently asked questions
About Wilbur S. Pence MiddleWhat is the total enrollment at Wilbur S. Pence Middle?
Wilbur S. Pence Middle enrolls approximately 671 students in grades 06-08.
Is Wilbur S. Pence Middle an elementary, middle, or high school?
Wilbur S. Pence Middle is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does Wilbur S. Pence Middle have?
Wilbur S. Pence Middle employs 52 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.8:1.
What is the student diversity at Wilbur S. Pence Middle?
Student demographics at Wilbur S. Pence Middle are roughly 71% White, 19% Hispanic, 3% Black, 1% Asian, 5% Two or more.
What district is Wilbur S. Pence Middle in?
Wilbur S. Pence Middle is part of Rockingham County Public Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.