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Richmond City Public Schools


At a glance
118thof 131 Virginia districts▼ 3
Better than 9% of Virginia districts
301 North 9th St
Richmond, VA 23219-1927
·(804) 780-7700·All Virginia district rankings →
Statewide performance 2018–2026
2026: better than 9.9% of districts
57
Schools
20,989
Students
2
5-star schools
Top rankedMary Munford Elementary32nd of 1,111 Virginia elementary schools
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Biggest riser
Barack Obama Elementary up 102 spots statewide this year
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Smallest classes
Richmond Virtual Academy 5.8 students per teacher
SchoolDigger ratings
3★
1★
0★
15 schools without a SchoolDigger rating (too few tested students)
Summary:

Richmond City Public Schools is a large, heavily urban district in Virginia serving 44 schools — 26 elementary, 7 middle, 10 high, and 1 alternative school — and is ranked 118th out of 131 Virginia districts, placing it in the bottom 10% with a 1-star rating. The district serves a nearly universally economically disadvantaged student body, with free/reduced-price lunch rates of 95–100% at almost every school. While the district average graduation rate is 77.5% versus the state's 92.3%, and chronic absenteeism runs at 20.5%, the most striking pattern is the enormous range of outcomes within a single district.

The district's top schools are small, selective magnets. Open High is the flagship, ranked 5th out of 331 high schools with a 100% graduation rate and nearly perfect SOL scores, while Richmond Community High ranks 39th, also with 100% graduation and just 1.9% chronic absenteeism — the lowest in the district. Franklin Military Academy serves grades 6–12 and posts 100% graduation with strong middle-grade results. At the elementary level, Mary Munford Elementary ranks 32nd out of 1,111 elementary schools statewide, with 88–97% proficiency across math and reading. Among traditional comprehensive high schools, Thomas Jefferson High leads with a 94.4% graduation rate and a #274 state rank. John Marshall High reports 100% graduation and 0% dropout, though its SOL scores remain low, ranking it 309th.

At the other extreme, Richmond Success Academy ranks 330th out of 331 high schools with a 43.5% graduation rate, a 39.4% dropout rate, and 65.5% chronic absenteeism. George W. Carver Elementary is the lowest-ranked elementary school in Virginia at #1,111, with just 26.1% of 3rd graders reading proficiently and 47.5% chronic absenteeism. Middle school math is a crisis — River City Middle and Lucille M. Brown Middle both posted 0% proficiency in 7th-grade math — yet a few schools like Albert Hill Middle show 100% proficiency in Algebra I, revealing a polarized tracking system. Encouragingly, Linwood Holton Elementary improved from #646 to #412 over two years. The key takeaway: Richmond has proof of what works — small size, strong attendance, and high expectations — but has not yet scaled those conditions district-wide.

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Ranking:
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E Elementary M Middle H High A Alternative P Private




SchoolDigger data sources: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Virginia Department of Education.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMERS: Not all boundaries are included. We make every effort to ensure that boundaries are up-to-date. But it's important to note that these are approximations and are for general informational purposes only. To verify legal descriptions of boundaries or school locations, contact your local tax assessor's office and/or school district.

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