Richmond students recovering from pandemic faster than most U.S. school districts
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Richmond Public Schools is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic faster than many districts nationwide, even as overall achievement remains far below pre-pandemic levels, per a new report.
Why it matters: RPS was once cited nationally as an example of a school division struggling to recover from COVID-era learning losses. Now, researchers say it's a "district on the rise."
The big picture: Richmond is one of five Virginia districts showing unusually strong progress compared with similar school systems statewide, according to a new Education Scorecard report from Stanford's Educational Opportunity Project.
- And it ranked higher than about 84% of school districts in the U.S. in how quickly students are gaining academic skills year to year.
- The rebound follows the heightened COVID risk that led RPS to go remote for longer than any other district in the state, leaving students to lose two years of math skills and 1.5 years of reading.
How it works: The project offers a national snapshot of how school systems have recovered — or struggled — from 2022 through 2025.
- The report combines state test data from roughly 35 million students in grades 3-8 across more than 35 states and Washington, D.C.
Zoom in: In Richmond, students improved test scores by an average of 0.18 grade levels per year since 2022 while every surrounding district — like Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield — saw flat or declining trends.
- Some of the biggest gains were among RPS' low-income and Black students, who account for a major share of the district's enrollment, per state data.
- RPS was also the only local school district in which Hispanic students didn't see a decline in test score trends between 2022 and 2025, per the report.
Yes, but: RPS students still remain behind overall, scoring an average of 3.03 grade levels below the 2019 national average.
- Comparatively, Hanover students scored 0.66 grade levels above it, while Chesterfield and Henrico students were 0.77 and 0.70 grade levels below average.
Plus: Major racial achievement gaps remain persistent across all Richmond-area schools, according to the report.
- In Richmond, white students scored an average of 2.17 grade levels above the national benchmark while Black and Hispanic students scored 3.44 and 3.52 grade levels below it, respectively.
- Similar disparities appeared in the surrounding counties, including Henrico, where white students scored 1.09 grade levels above the national average while Black and Hispanic students scored 2.92 and 2.69 grade levels below it.
Context: Chronic absence rates in Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover all remain above pre-pandemic levels.
The bottom line: "We still have a really long way to go," RPS superintendent Jason Kamras told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
- "But it's gratifying to be recognized for the progress we are making."