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Richmond Community Schools reports multi-year test gains; analyst highlights pandemic recovery and remaining gaps
Summary
An external analyst told the Richmond Community Schools board that five‑year iLearn trends show gains in ELA and math and faster recovery to pre‑pandemic levels than peer districts, while middle‑school performance — especially eighth grade — remains a concern.
Richmond Community Schools reported measurable gains in student achievement during a March 6 work session, with an outside analyst saying the district has made steady multi‑year progress in English language arts and math and recovered more quickly from pandemic declines than similar districts.
Ryan Winter, CEO of LinkedIn (described in the presentation as a data analytics vendor), told the Board the district’s iLearn results over a five‑year window show improvement across the four core subjects and that Richmond’s elementary grades drove much of the momentum. "There is momentum across your different grades and subjects, really in both ELA and math," Winter said during his presentation.
Winter said the analysis compared Richmond to several peer sets — a decile band of districts with similar economically disadvantaged percentages, county and regional peers, and statewide results — and that the most relevant comparison group is districts with similar socioeconomic composition. Richmond’s economically disadvantaged rate was reported as 62%, and Winter said the district sits in a 60–70% decile band of roughly 38 districts used for the closest peer comparisons.
Why this matters: the peer‑band comparison is intended to isolate socioeconomic differences that drive variation in proficiency. Winter said lower socioeconomic composition is the single largest predictor of lower proficiency on state tests, so comparing Richmond to districts with roughly the same socioeconomic makeup gives a clearer view of relative progress.
Key findings presented - Across the four core subjects (ELA, math, science, social studies), Richmond’s percentile rank improved over the five‑year span. Winter said ELA rose from the second percentile five years ago to about the tenth percentile most recently, and overall state rankings improved (for example, a move from 282 of 288 LEAs to 261 of 290 in the dataset he used). - Elementary grades posted the largest gains: Winter highlighted third and fourth grades in particular, citing a jump in the most recent year (fourth grade reported at about 35% passing, which he described as 8 percentage points higher than the district’s pre‑pandemic average). - Richmond declined less during the pandemic and recovered faster than peers: Winter noted the district fell about 2 percentage points during the pandemic while the state and peer groups fell more (state down ~7 points; peers down ~8–9 points) and the district had largely returned to pre‑pandemic passing rates. - Middle and high school patterns were mixed: Winter and district leaders flagged middle school, and eighth grade in particular, as an area of concern where scores dipped or lagged; Winter said middle school performance has been “very difficult” nationally and that Richmond’s eighth grade showed declines in both ELA and math.
Board and staff context District leaders and principals linked the reported gains to multiple local initiatives: adoption of new K–8 ELA curriculum (Wit & Wisdom/Wisdom), Ready Math (year three), a new K–8 science program (Savvas), implementation of instructional coaching and NIET structures (ILT/ALT/cluster meetings), and social‑emotional work such as TBRI. Assistant superintendents and school principals provided school‑level data showing progress on iReady, DIBELS and interim checkpoint assessments, and they described policies intended to support continued progress.
What the district will do next Board members asked staff to provide follow‑up details on several items Winter raised: (1) a clearer narrative of the peer‑group methodology and how leaders should use those comparisons, (2) further analysis of the eighth‑grade declines and participation irregularities during 2020–21 testing years, and (3) school‑by‑school breakdowns for the state assessment and interim checkpoints. Winter and staff said they will supply additional slides and school‑level detail in subsequent reports.
The session combined the external analysis and building‑level presentations to give the board both the high‑level trend data and the local instructional changes district leaders say are producing the gains. District officials emphasized that work on instruction, attendance and behavior remains central to sustaining and extending the progress.
