Summary:
The Harrisonburg City Public Schools district in Virginia is home to two middle schools, Skyline Middle and Thomas Harrison Middle, both of which are struggling to provide a high-quality education to their students. Neither school is highly ranked at the state level, with Skyline Middle ranked 346th and Thomas Harrison Middle ranked 327th out of 417 Virginia middle schools for the 2023-2024 school year.
The data reveals that both schools have significant socioeconomic challenges, with high percentages of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch (79.2% at Skyline Middle and 78.93% at Thomas Harrison Middle). This suggests that the schools serve communities with significant socioeconomic disparities, which may contribute to their academic struggles. Additionally, there appears to be a difference in per-student spending between the two schools, with Skyline Middle spending $10,521 per student and Thomas Harrison Middle spending $9,997 per student, indicating potential resource disparities that could impact the quality of education and support available to students.
While both schools are underperforming, there are some differences in their student demographics and academic performance. Skyline Middle has a more diverse student population, with 51.36% Hispanic, 12.05% African American, and 28.12% White students, while Thomas Harrison Middle has a higher percentage of White students at 36.22%, with 50.51% Hispanic and 8.51% African American students. Additionally, Thomas Harrison Middle appears to have slightly stronger performance in certain areas, such as Algebra I, suggesting that there may be opportunities to learn from the practices or approaches used at this school that could potentially be applied at Skyline Middle.
Thank you for your feedback!