City schools also have graduation rates far below the statewide average.

Just 3 in 4 city seniors graduated on time last year, a rate 16 percentage points below the state average, while 1 in 5 students who started ninth grade in 2014 dropped out, according to data from the Virginia Department of Education.

Slightly more than half (52%) of students from that graduating class went on to college, according to federal data.

Once they get to college, though, many Richmond students are not finishing.

Roughly 2 in 5 of the RPS alumni who go on to college earned a years’ worth of college credit within two years of their high school graduation, according to federal data for the graduating class of 2015 for the city’s five comprehensive high schools.

Only 14% of that year’s total class earned at least 30 college credits, the National Student Clearinghouse reported.

“We need to meet students where they are so they can be successful,” said School Board Chairwoman Dawn Page. “We need to stop using poverty as an excuse that our children cannot learn.”

Less than half of low-income students in the city go on to college, according to the federal data.