Richmond Schools Show Boost in Winter Test Scores; State-by-State Report on Medicaid

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Richmond Schools Show Boost in Winter Test Scores

By Emma Beardsley and Lauren Jones/Capital News Service. Richmond Public Schools officials highlighted a district-wide rise in winter standardized test scores across all subject areas during Monday night’s RPS school board work session.

Solomon Jefferson, chief academic officer for secondary education, reported that scores on the winter 2024-2025 high school Standards of Learning (SOL) improved universally from last winter. Students, particularly Black and economically disadvantaged reporting groups, showed progress in reading, math, science, and history.

“While we know we have a long way to go, we want to thank our schools, our teachers, and our school leaders for the work that they’ve done to support scholars and show this increase,” Jefferson said. “We’ve used this terminology about RPS on the rise. We’re definitely on the rise.”

Students improved from 54% proficiency in Reading last winter to 60% this year, from 56% to 59% in Math, 33% to 43% in Science, and from 38% to 44% in History. District officials also celebrated a double-digit increase in Algebra II scores, which rose from 35% to 46%.

“There are many folks who said when we pushed Algebra I to middle school that we were pushing too hard, and what we are finding now is not only are more than 90% of our middle schoolers taking Algebra I, but then they are going to high school and passing the Algebra II exam,” Superintendent Jason Kamras said. “I think it is a demonstration of the fact that if we expect greatness of our students, they will demonstrate greatness.”

John Grove, director of data analytics for the school system, commended Armstrong High School for its students’ double-digit improvement in math, reading, and science, highlighting its 85% math proficiency.

Board Member Cheryl Burke from District 7 praised the results, saying, “When I see double digits of improvement, that means that somebody’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing and then some.”

Similarly, Huguenot High School saw a 21% increase in science proficiency, while Richmond High School for the Arts nearly doubled its reading proficiency. Grove said the improved reading scores could impact graduation rates – particularly among multilingual students.

Cassandra Bell, director of curriculum and instruction, emphasized the district’s recent efforts that contributed to these accomplishments. She credited incorporating an English high school specialist, middle school math acceleration, implementing performance-based assessments in some subjects, and the dedication of teachers and students alike.

To sustain progress, Willie Bell said midyear reviews were conducted with all high schools to assess progress and identify areas for further support.

“We’ve made some halftime adjustments,” he said, noting these adjustments included more intervention time, targeted support and continued professional development for teachers.

Some board members raised concerns about participation rates, particularly among white students. Compared to the 2023-2024 SOL results, reading proficiency among the caucasian subgroup decreased by 13%. Grove said Franklin High School’s absence from testing this winter could explain the decline.

“Typically, those students do very well in terms of reading proficiency,” Grove said. “If they did test this winter, our reading proficiency would have seen an increase.”

Board Member Stephanie Rizzi from District 5 cautioned against making broad conclusions from the winter SOL results, saying the sample size represents less than 5% of Richmond’s total student body.

“These numbers are great. How they represent the entire group, we’ll find out at the end of the year,” Rizzi said.

Rizzi also emphasized the need to prepare students for college, calling SOLs a minimal standard.

“In the job I currently have now, we’re looking at persistence rates of RPS students in college…and they struggle,” Rizzi said. “So we need to make sure we’re putting in what we have to make sure our children are college-ready.”

State-by-State Report by Dems Projects Millions Could Lose Medicaid

By Jennifer Shutt - A report released Thursday by Democrats details how many people in each state would lose access to Medicaid if Republicans in Congress were to cut the program by one-third — a scenario some GOP lawmakers have floated as an option to help pay for tax cuts, though one so sweeping it would struggle to get the votes needed to become law.

The Joint Economic Committee – Minority report, shared first with States Newsroom, projects that 25 million people throughout the country would lose access to Medicaid if Republicans were to enact a law cutting funding to the health care program for lower income Americans by one-third.

Among them, 3 million would be rural residents and 10 million would be children. Additionally, 1 in 5 seniors could lose Medicaid coverage of their nursing home care, according to the report.

The state-by-state breakdown in the JEC report shows that California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas would have the highest numbers of residents harmed by the potential cuts. Each of those states could have more than 1 million residents potentially kicked off the program. READ ENTIRE

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