Virtual Campus
Des Moines · IA · Des Moines Independent Comm School District · Public
📄 Shareable scorecard →Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Ruby Van Meter → Lincoln High School → Roosevelt High School → East High School → North High School → Joshua Christian Academy → Great Oaks High School and Career Center → Walnut Creek Campus →📋 At a glance
- 📚 2 AP courses offered — Moderate
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 40% of US high schools
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 5% (Bottom 0% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Virtual Campus compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ LocallyIA students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+8 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Ruby Van Meter, Lincoln High School, Roosevelt High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Moderate — some AP / advanced course access
Bottom 40% of US high schools
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
Bottom 0% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -25.9%/year, projecting from 2024's 380 students:
≈ 295 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue at risk
At $18,612 per student in district revenue, the 295 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $5,490,540/year in funding at risk.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Nearby high schools — the local competition
The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruby Van Meter Des Moines |
Public | 0.9 | 68 | -5.6% |
| Lincoln High School Des Moines |
Public | 1.7 | 2,364 | +0.1% |
| Roosevelt High School Des Moines |
Public | 2.0 | 2,051 | -0.6% |
| East High School Des Moines |
Public | 2.3 | 1,952 | -6.1% |
| North High School Des Moines |
Public | 2.5 | 1,428 | -0.3% |
| Joshua Christian Academy Des Moines |
Private | 3.0 | 175 | +42.3% |
| Great Oaks High School and Career Center Des Moines |
Public · charter | 3.4 | 72 | — |
| Walnut Creek Campus West Des Moines |
Public | 3.7 | 152 | +17.8% |