Portsmouth Public Schools - Your Child Can Excel Here.
The public school system in Portsmouth currently has an enrollment of about 15,000 students. The division includes three high schools, three middle schools, 13 elementary schools, four pre-kindergarten centers, an alternative school, an adult learning center, and the Career and Technical Education Office at the Portsmouth campus of Tidewater Community College.
Academic Excellence
Our commitment to academic excellence rests on four principles that will stimulate the minds, strengthen the bodies and nurture the noblest dreams of the students we teach. We promise to:
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Challenge our students to grow continually
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Affirm the intrinsic worth our students, individually and collectively
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Respect our students, their aspirations and their dreams
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Encourage our students by our dedication to their well-being and by our program offerings
STARBASE Victory Program
In 2002 we brought STARBASE to Portsmouth Public Schools. It was a prototype program to see if 500 fifth grade students would enjoy learning about airplanes and rockets ... with some team-building and career development thrown in for good measure. They loved it! The rocket launches were spectacular, of course, but the students clearly enjoyed working together to solve simple problems. They gained self-confidence through accomplishment, and they discovered that math and science can actually be fun.
Over the years, we upgraded and expanded the concept of experiential learning so that now all Portsmouth students in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades come to STARBASE. In the fourth grade they learn about spatial relationships (mapping, GPS and GIS). In the fifth grade they learn about the weather and the Elizabeth River watershed. And in the sixth grade program they all get to launch their own rocket. We teach by doing, not by drilling. We test, but we don't grade. It works.
Science is no longer a mystery to the graduates of STARBASE Victory. It is an exciting new world to be explored. It's clear to me that we are "Launching Futures, One Child at a Time".
TCC Upward Bound Program
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Upward Bound is a grant-sponsored program through the U.S. Department of Education (U.S.D.E.)
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The Program provides fundamental support to participants in their preparation for college entrance.
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The program provides opportunities for participants to succeed in pre-college performance and ultimately in higher education pursuits.
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Upward Bound serves high school students who meet guidelines established by the U.S.D.E. which include: income, first generation, and academic risk.
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The goal of Upward Bound is to increase the rates at which participants enroll in and graduate from institutions of post secondary education.
Recent Student Achievements
Notable Successes by School
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Churchland Elementary, Churchland Primary and Intermediate, and Churchland High obtained an English pass rate of 90% or better
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Churchland Academy, Churchland Elementary, Churchland Primary and Intermediate, Hodges Manor Elementary, James Hurst Elementary and Woodrow Wilson High obtained a mathematics pass rate of 90% or better
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Churchland Elementary, Churchland Primary and Intermediate, Hodges Manor Elementary and Churchland High obtained a social studies/history pass rate of 90% or better
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Churchland Elementary, Churchland Primary and Intermediate, and Hodges Manor Elementary obtained a science pass rate of 90% or better
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Churchland Elementary and Churchland Primary and Intermediate achieved a pass rate of 90% across all subjects
Notable Successes by Students
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2,107 students scored at the advanced proficiency level in English, a 10.6% increase from the previous school year
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1,568 students obtained a perfect score across the core areas (English, mathematics, science, and social studies), an 8.7% increase from the previous year
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5,746 students scored at the advanced proficiency level across the core areas (English, mathematics, science, and social studies), a 3.1% increase from the previous year
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Middle schoolers achieved a pass rate of 100% for biology, 99% for Algebra I, and 97% for geometry
Notable Awards
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Churchland Primary and Intermediate, and Hodges Manor, James Hurst and Olive Branch Elementary Schools received the Board of Education's 2010 Competence-to-Excellence Award
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Douglass Park and Simonsdale Elementary Schools received the Board of Education's Excellence Award for 2010
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Churchland Elementary received the Governor's 2010 Award for Educational Excellence
Recent Portsmouth School Board and Professional Staff Accomplishments
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Earned an honorable mention citation from the Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) and was recognized as one of four finalists for the 2010 CUBE Annual Award for Urban School Board Excellence
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Received the Virginia School Boards Association's (VSBA) 2010 Board of Distinction Award
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Earned the 2010 Pete Taylor Partnership of Excellence Award presented in recognition of the school division's receiving the Military Child Education Coalition's Exemplary Partnership Award
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Earned the 2010 Award of Achievement for Financial Reporting presented by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada
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Earned the Pinnacle of Achievement Award presented by the Association of School Business Officials International
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Recognized as a Certified Green School Division by the Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA)