Over 78% of Richmond Public Schools students graduated on-time last year, a significant increase over the prior year’s rate and well above the rate in the year before the pandemic. 

Data released by the Virginia Department of Education Friday put Richmond’s graduation rate at 78.1% for 2024, compared to 72.5% in 2023 and 70.8% in 2019. However, it remained below a recent peak of 78.5% in 2021. 

School-level data shows rates also increased at nearly every high school in the city. The biggest increase occurred at Richmond High School for the Arts, the former George Wythe High off Midlothian Turnpike on the city’s Southside. There, the graduation rate rose from 47.3% in 2023 to 61.5% this year — a 14.2 percentage point bump, although the school still has one of the lowest rates in the division. 

Rates fell at two schools. At Thomas Jefferson High in the Museum District, they dropped from nearly 94% to 91.9%. 

They also fell at Richmond Alternative School (now renamed Richmond Success Academy), from 16.1% to 5.5%. Those numbers partially reflect how the school functions: Richmond Success Academy serves students pulled out of other division schools for major behavioral and academic problems and is intended to be a temporary remedial facility, meaning students cycle in and out throughout the school year. 

Alyssa Schwenk, a spokesperson for the school division, said the on-time graduation rate doesn’t account for students who receive their GED rather than a high school diploma. Eight of the 55 Richmond Success Academy students in the 2024 cohort received their GEDs, she said. 

However, she wrote in an email, “We also are intent on ensuring all students succeed. We’re making significant investments in RSA this year to ensure that.” 

“None of this happened by chance,” said Richmond Superintendent Jason Kamras in an announcement of the results. “Our schools and Central Office teams have been working incredibly hard to reshape the support we provide to students to better meet their needs.” 

Kamras pointed to three programs in particular: the Secondary Success Center, a program that allows students who have dropped out to earn their diploma outside a traditional school setting; Con Ganas, a program for English language learners who “need a non-traditional schedule due to work, childcare, or other serious personal circumstances”; and the Test Takers Academy, a program that helps students several credits short of a diploma with preparation for state assessments.

Kamras said the three programs collectively helped 89 students earn diplomas last year. 

Overall, state data records 1,087 students graduated from RPS schools in 2024.