One big reason was cited when the Richmond School Board hired Dr. Dana T. Bedden as superintendent in December 2013 — his track record for increasing academic performance among students in the school systems he had led in Georgia and Texas.

Few doubted he was the energetic leader who could turn Richmond Public Schools into an academic success story.

However, as Dr. Bedden prepares to begin his third full school year as the RPS leader, there is little evidence that he and his administration have found the formula to improve academic achievement among students.

The percentage of Richmond students passing state Standards of Learning tests in five core subjects mostly declined, according to the latest state report on student pass rates that was released Tuesday.

The results are based on the pass rates for tests taken last spring at the end of the 2015-16 school year.

The data show that a smaller percentage of city students passed SOL tests in mathematics, writing, history and science last spring compared with pass rates in the 2014-15 school year.

The only slight improvement showed on reading and English tests as 60 percent of students passed compared with 59 percent the previous year.

“We still have a lot of work ahead of us,” Dr. Bedden acknowledged after reviewing the disappointing results in the second year of the academic improvement program he launched in 2014.

He will try again with a new program that he calls the “School Progress Plan for Continuous Improvement” that will rely heavily on data analysis and identification of student performance indicators.

At the same time, he stated, “Our focus in the coming school year will remain on collaborating with our teachers and district leaders to provide rigorous and meaningful experiences to help our students develop as critical thinkers and problem-solvers equipped with 21st century skills for success.”

What seems clear from the state reports is that Richmond, as well as other school districts, has yet to figure out how to get more African-American students turned on about learning.

Richmond, which has an 80 percent African-American student population, has long pointed to the fact that a majority of its students are the product of low-income households and begin school with smaller vocabularies and more limited exposure to stimulating experiences.

Whether that explanation holds water is unclear given RPS’ massive preschool program that served more than 1,900 children last year.

Nor does it help explain why that gap persists across the state, whether a school district is rural, suburban or urban. Statewide, a smaller percentage of African-American students pass SOL tests than white, Latino and Asian students.

For example, statewide, 66 percent of African-American students passed SOL reading tests in 2015-16, compared to 86 percent of white students, 71 percent of Latino students and 91 percent of Asian students.

A similar frustrating achievement gap showed up in the pass rates for math, writing, history and science.

Dr. Billy K. Cannaday Jr., president of the state Board of Education, recognizes the problem. He stated that the board “is committed to implementing reforms that will shine a light on achievement gaps and hold all schools accountable for raising the achievement of students who historically have struggled to meet Virginia’s high expectations.”

However, he did not offer any ideas or suggestions that could help school districts raise achievement levels of those students.

A career educator for more than 30 years, Dr. Cannaday was a highy regarded superintendent of Chesterfield County Public Schools before stepping down in 2006 to become the state superintendent of public instruction. He left the state leadership position in 2008 to become dean of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies at the University of Virginia, from which he has retired.

Neither Chesterfield nor Henrico Public schools — both of which often are held up as educational models — has come up with any magic formulas to resolve the achievement gap.

For example, 84 percent of Chesterfield’s students passed the 2015-16 SOL tests for reading, but only 73 percent of African-American students did. When it comes to writing, 76 percent of the county’s students passed the SOL writing test, but only 62 percent of African-American students did.

In Henrico, 78 percent of students passed the reading tests, but only 64 percent of African-American students did. Similar achievement gaps showed up in the other core subjects.

Nor has the state Department of Education found solutions after years of spending millions of dollars to deploy turnaround specialists at Title I schools that are well below average. At least 10 schools in Richmond have been the subject of these efforts that seem to have created little change.

A closer look at school-by-school results in Richmond shows wide variations in student performance. Academic success seems to depend on which school a student attends.

For example, at Carver Elementary School near Downtown, 97 percent of students passed the 2015-16 SOL tests in reading, while only 33 percent of students passed at Woodville Elementary School in the East End.

At Broad Rock Elementary in South Side, 89 percent of students passed the SOL tests in reading, while a few miles away at Oak Grove Elementary, only 46 percent of students passed the reading test.

At Armstrong High School in the East End, 58 percent of students passed the 2015-16 English SOL test, while 77 percent of students passed at Thomas Jefferson High School in the West End and 75 percent passed at John Marshall High School in North Side.

There is no data to explain the variations among students, who largely come from similar backgrounds.