Gaston Virtual Academy
Gastonia · NC · Gaston County Schools · Public · K-12 combined
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Hunter Huss High → Webb Street School → Victory Christian Academy → Highland Sch of Technology → Piedmont Community Charter School → Bessemer City High → Gaston Early College of Medical Sciences → Ashbrook High →📋 At a glance
- 📚 2 AP courses offered — Limited
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 29% of US high schools
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 14% by test-taker volume
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Gaston Virtual Academy compares for families
What families should know about Gaston Virtual Academy.
- ▸ LocallyNC sits right at the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math — local school quality will set your kid apart.
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Hunter Huss High, Webb Street School, Victory Christian Academy and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Limited — narrow advanced curriculum
Bottom 29% 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 · 2020-21Bottom 14% by test-taker volume
Source: 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.
🏛️ 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.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: A low chronic-absence rate is the cleanest school-level signal of strong family connection, classroom culture, and student engagement — all upstream drivers of enrollment stability. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
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 -27.4%/year, projecting from 2024's 283 students:
≈ 226 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 $10,515 per student in district revenue, the 226 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $2,376,390/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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter Huss High Gastonia |
Public | 1.3 | 1,165 | +6.8% |
| Webb Street School Gastonia |
Public | 1.6 | 97 | +6.6% |
| Victory Christian Academy Gastonia |
Private | 2.1 | 126 | +24.8% |
| Highland Sch of Technology Gastonia |
Public | 3.3 | 538 | +0.9% |
| Piedmont Community Charter School Gastonia |
Public · charter | 4.4 | 630 | +15.8% |
| Bessemer City High Bessemer City |
Public | 4.7 | 590 | +3.0% |
| Gaston Early College of Medical Sciences Dallas |
Public | 5.1 | 174 | +120.3% |
| Ashbrook High Gastonia |
Public | 5.7 | 1,386 | +9.2% |