19 public K-12 schools in Suffolk from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Suffolk has more public-school enrollment than 88% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Suffolk sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.
11 of Suffolk's 19 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.
The 23-point gap between John Yeates Middle and King's Fork High shows the range hidden by Suffolk's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.
Suffolk school enrollment ranges from 362 students (lowest) to 1,686 students (highest), a spread of 1,324 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
The reported share sits between 62.5% and 75%, above a simple majority but below the highest descriptive band used here. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Suffolk's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Suffolk is typically wider than the Suffolk-aggregate figure suggests.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | John Yeates Middle | 59 |
| 2. | John F. Kennedy Middle | 53 |
| 3. | Northern Shores Elementary | 52 |
| 4. | Colonel Fred Cherry Middle | 49 |
| 5. | Creekside Elementary | 48 |
| 6. | Nansemond Parkway Elementary | 46 |
| 7. | Booker T. Washington Elementary | 45 |
| 8. | Nansemond River High | 42 |
| 9. | King's Fork Middle | 42 |
| 10. | Hillpoint Elementary | 42 |
| 11. | Oakland Elementary | 42 |
| 12. | Mack Benn Jr. Elementary | 41 |
| 13. | Southwestern Elementary | 41 |
| 14. | Lakeland High | 40 |
| 15. | Florence Bowser Elementary | 40 |
| 16. | Forest Glen Middle | 39 |
| 17. | Kilby Shores Elementary | 38 |
| 18. | Elephant's Fork Elementary | 37 |
| 19. | King's Fork High | 36 |
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
John Yeates Middle has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Suffolk schools in this federal-data comparison at 59/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Suffolk has 19 public schools with a total enrollment of 14,565 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 15:1.
Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Virginia →
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.
