City: Chesapeake, VA

Category: Education

Telephone: (757) 547-0153

Address: 312 Cedar Rd.

Description: Chesapeake is a large division with 39,000 students, 45 schools, and two education centers. It is the seventh biggest system in the state and second only to Virginia Beach in the area. There are seven high schools as well as an International Baccalaureate program, a Technology Academy, and one in the works to focus on medicine. In the 2008–09 academic year, 24 Chesapeake students scored a perfect 800 on the SAT tests and 26 earned National Merit Scholarship Program honors. The division graduates almost 87 percent of its students on time, ahead of the state average of 83.2 percent, the highest rate in the region. Twenty-eight of the division’s schools were certified as excellent by the state, and every school is fully accredited, with 45 in the top state category. The system has been named one of the best in the nation for music education by the American Music Conference.