The good news: More than half of Richmond’s public school students passed one or more state Standards of Learning tests in 2018 and are meeting state objectives in the core subjects of reading, writing, math, science and history/social studies.

The bad news: At least two of every five students were unable to pass one or more of those tests, keeping RPS ranked near the bottom among Virginia school divisions for student academic achievement.

“I am not going to sugarcoat it. These scores are deeply disappointing,” Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras stated after reviewing student results from the spring round of SOL tests that were released Wednesday by the Virginia Department of Education.

He noted that the percentage of students passing SOL tests for writing, math and history declined from 2017, while the percentage of students passing reading and science tests essentially remained unchanged.

The RPS overall pass rates in the five core subjects trailed state averages by 23 percentage points. High school students who do not pass at least one SOL test in each of those subjects — known as a verified credit — cannot receive a diploma, according to state guidelines.

Mr. Kamras, who took over as superintendent in February, will start his first full school year in two weeks when the 2018-19 school year begins. He said students who did not pass the SOLs are capable, but “as a system, we’re failing them right now. But that’s going to change.

“With our new strategic plan, we will be taking a number of steps to make sure our students experience exciting and rigorous instruction every single day,” he stated in a message that was filled with the same enthusiasm and optimism of past superintendents who arrived promising to usher in change.

And like them, he also added a cautionary note: The “work will be challenging, and it will take time.”

For more than six years, RPS and the state have poured resources into hiring consultants and paying for training to help principals and teachers usher in a turnaround at many of the city schools, but there is little evidence that any formula has worked.

Boushall and Elkhardt-Thompson middle schools, for example, have been targets of such efforts. At both schools, fewer than half the students passed SOL tests in reading, writing, math and science, the new data show. Only 47 percent of Boushall students passed an SOL reading test, a drop of 10 percentage points from 2016, while only 40 percent passed the SOL reading test at Elkhardt-Thompson.

Only about one-third of students at both schools passed the math test.

A review of RPS data at the division and school level clearly identifies one of the problems: Many of Richmond’s students leave elementary school unable to read properly.

The division level data show that 53 percent of RPS third-graders passed the SOL reading test in 2018, a 5 percentage point decline from 2017 and a 9 percentage point slide from 2016 results.

Third-graders who read at grade level are four times more likely to graduate, studies show.

East End elementary schools exemplify the seriousness of the problem.

According to the data for Bellevue Elementary, which had the best showing among East End schools on reading, only 50 percent of students passed the reading test in the third, fourth or fifth grades. That means one in two students did not.

At Chimborazo Elementary, 45 percent of students passed the reading test, meaning 55 percent of students there are not reading on grade level.

The results were worse at Fairfield Court Elementary, where only 38 percent of students passed the reading test. That’s far below the glowing 80 percent pass rate the school reported two years ago.

Woodville Elementary was at the bottom, with only 36 percent of students passing the reading test.

The inability of East End students to read at grade level shows up at the nearly brand new Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, where 32 percent of students passed the SOL reading test in the spring, and only 17 percent passed the SOL writing test.

The lack of academic success at the lower levels is reflected also at Armstrong High School, which can trace its founding to post Civil War Richmond in the 1860s and once ranked as a proud beacon of education for African-American students. Its list of graduates includes former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s first African-American elected governor.

Just 54 percent of Armstrong High students passed the state SOL test in reading, while 35 percent passed the writing test. Three of every five Armstrong students did not pass SOL tests in math, science and history/social studies.

While the data can identify such problems, it cannot explain why more students succeed at one school and fewer at another.

For example, at Barack Obama Elementary in North Side, 75 percent of students passed the SOL reading test, while just 57 percent of students from almost identical backgrounds passed the reading test at Overby-Sheppard Elementary, about a mile further east.

That same disparity shows up at two of the newest elementary schools in South Side.

At Oak Grove/Bellmeade Elementary, 41 percent of the students passed the reading test, while at overcrowded Broad Rock Elementary, 78 percent of students passed.

It is unclear why only 39 percent of students at Greene Elementary passed the reading test, while 68 percent passed at Redd Elementary.

The data also shows that the city’s middle schools are not educational success stories.

Citywide, data shows that among all eighth-graders, 48 percent did not pass the SOL reading test; 56 percent did not pass the writing test; and 58 percent did not pass the math test.