Richmond Public Schools’ Standard of Learning test scores remain below pre-pandemic levels, coming in the same for reading, but falling in math and science when compared with scores from last year.

While 47 percent of students throughout the district passed the reading SOL’s, only 37 percent passed math, 36 percent passed writing, 34 percent passed history and less than a third — 32 percent — passed science. RPS continues to lag significantly behind surrounding county test scores. In reading, for example, 71 percent of students in Chesterfield, 81 percent of students in Hanover and 70 percent of students in Henrico passed the reading SOLs.

In releasing the scores on Aug. 18, the Virginia Department of Education reported that, “. . . despite one-year gains in most subjects,” scores remain below pre-pandemic scores statewide.” The VDOE pointed to school closures as a major contributor to depressed student performance. School districts that returned to in-person learning sooner after the pandemic had higher test scores — RPS was one of the last school districts to do so.

The poor outcomes prompted the Richmond Public School Board to call an emergency meeting Tuesday night.

RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras faulted the pandemic and complications from it, saying “With record student and staff absences due to illness, isolation and quarantine during the Delta and Omicron surges last year; unprecedented social and emotional trauma; spikes in unemployment and homelessness that con- tinue today and other once-in-a-century disruptions ...” the poor test results are not surprising.

The Richmond Virginia Branch of the NAACP disagrees.

“The recent SOL scores are a direct result of poor leadership, lack of knowledge and arrogance,” President James “JJ” Minor said in a letter directed to Dr. Shonda Harris-Muhammed, chair of the School Board. “We cannot overstate — RPS’s abhorrent scores indicate a public school district in crisis!”

Prior to Tuesday’s emergency School Board meeting for RPS, rumors swirled about the poor SOL scores being grounds for dismissing Mr. Kamras. Mayor Levar M. Stoney publicly denounced the notion, tweeting on Monday that the School Board should not consider firing Mr. Kamras, and that an emergency meeting was unnecessary. He tossed the blame for low student performance back to the School Board for not following the recommendation for a year-round school year to help make-up for the deficits created by virtual learning and other challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the public comment period of the meeting, parents, teachers and others blamed the School Board as well, but not for voting down the motion for year-round school. Instead, they pointed to a lack of leadership and poor curriculum as the root of the problem.

“Please resign,” said RPS parent Emily Kavanaugh. “You have shown yourselves to be failures to our children.”

In sharing her outrage, Kieasha King, an RPS teacher, pointed to inequities in the system and a lack of focus in the best interest of students as the culprit.

“Rome is burning and has been burning due to instructional inequities.”

School Board Vice Chair Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, echoed the sentiment of several teachers who shared their struggles about using the current curriculum in their instruction. Ms. Gibson said she was tired of seeing millions of dollars spent on materials that were either not used or proved difficult for teachers to implement.

“There are plenty of folks who would like to see things remain the same, but I am not among them,” Ms. Gibson said.

She then proposed that the district phase out the current curriculum and spend the 2022-2023 school year analyzing the needs of students to find a better curriculum by the end of the upcoming school year. The motion was voted down, 5-4.

In an email following the meeting, Ms. Gibson said the current curriculum was adopted despite teachers advising against it, and believes forcing them to use it has impacted teacher retention.

“As a district we have seen an unprecedented number of teachers leave and my motion included a request for that data,” she said. “We heard accounts in public comment from teachers who attempted to use the required materials, tried to modify their lesson plans to better support their classrooms, and then [they] were disciplined for not following them with fidelity.”

Although the timing may not be ideal for taking up a new curriculum, with hardly any time to analyze the SOL data to figure out students’ academic struggles, and the RPS school year starting in only a few days, Ms. Gibson said the needs of students cannot wait.

“Making this change is mission critical and long overdue and I am not giving up,” she said. “I am hopeful that we can get the votes to empower teachers to do what they do best.”