Some Virginia Black Children Have Restricted Access to In-Person Learning — But It’s Complicated

by James C. Sherlock

I just spent a good bit of time researching the statewide return-to-school instructional schedules of 132 school districts (May 3 VDOE data) in order to determine if Black students are being disproportionately disadvantaged.

They are, but the data show a very complex picture. The answers to “why and by whom?” get complicated.

After compiling the statewide statistics, I created groups of:

• Districts with majority of non-white teachers
• Districts with the most Black students
• Districts with a majority of black students

I will share my findings first.

The state data that I reviewed does not report attendance. There is widespread reporting that, even in some Districts in which Black students have an opportunity for in-person learning, Black child attendance is a very low percentage of what was expected.

Findings

1.  The back-to-school patterns in Districts with Black student majorities, non-White teacher majorities, and the highest numbers of Black students tracked almost exactly with one another. Each had less than 50% availability of in-person or partial in-person learning. Statewide, among all districts, the percentage in those two categories was 76%.
2. This was not a Black-White or left-right issue. Many of the school boards in the three groups of Districts have Black majorities and a couple of the rest are dominated by teachers unions.
3. The groupings of Districts from most open to least open are identifiably geographic. Some of the poorest counties in the state are open for in-person learning.
4. In the the two bottom categories, partial hybrid  and predominately remote, there are only five Districts. Four of those five have Black majority student populations. They are Franklin City, Martinsville City and Portsmouth City in the Partial Hybrid classification and Richmond City by itself in the Predominately Remote classification. Those four tip the scales in every category. It is also true, however, that the school boards in each of those Districts are predominantly Black.
5. The results do not show that the wealthiest school districts are the most open and the poorest the least open. In the most striking example, Petersburg, one of the poorest of the state’s Districts, has the highest percentage of Black students and highest percentage of non-White teachers. It offers in-person learning. Yet Fairfax County is all hybrid.

Questions

So, we are left with more questions than answers. Most interesting among these are:

1. Why have some Black school boards voted for relatively restrictive in-person learning opportunities for their majority Black student populations and others opened up their schools?
2. Why have profoundly woke white school boards in Northern Virginia not considered the best interests of their very large numbers of Black students when deciding on return to school instructional schedules?
3. Why are Black children going back to in-person school in low numbers when given the chance?
4. What in the world are we going to do with Richmond?

I suggest that the answers to some of those questions are more complex than they seem.

• The economics causal factor, which is one of the things I thought I might find, seems disproven by Petersburg, Surrey County, Sussex County and others.
• Black school board voting patterns on this issue were highly variable.
• The City of Richmond Public Schools, unfortunately, remains in a class of its own.

The statistics

Statewide results are as follows:

• In person – 58 Divisions. 4+ days of in person instruction for all students. Concentrated in West, Northwest and I-95/I-64 corridor south of Stafford County.
• Partial in person – 42 Divisions. 4+ days in person for some students (usually the younger grades); hybrid or remote for all other students. Concentrated in center of state west of Richmond.
• All hybrid – 27 Divisions. All in the Eastern half of the state.  Includes wealthy Northern Virginia counties dominated by teachers unions (Fairfax County, Prince William, Stafford Counties) as well as Northern Neck and Southside.
• Partial hybrid – 4 Divisions. Franklin, Manassas, Portsmouth, Martinsville. Some students hybrid (usually the younger grades; none hitting the 4 days/week threshold), all others fully remote
• Predominantly remote – 1 Division, Richmond City. Learning is currently remote for at least 95% of students and in person for all others.

So, 100 out of 132 Divisions are either in-person or partially in-person, the best ratings, or 76%.

Districts with majority of non-white teachers 

From a previous column:

• Norfolk – All hybrid
• Surry County – in-person
• Richmond City – Predominantly Remote
• Franklin City – Partial Hybrid
• Portsmouth City – Partial Hybrid
• Brunswick County – All hybrid
• Sussex County – Partial in-person
• Petersburg City – In Person

Three of the eight Divisions with fewer that 50% white teachers are either in-person or partially in-person, the best ratings ( less than 50%). Statewide 76%

Districts with the most Black students

Now let’s look at the districts with more than 5,000 Black students. They are in descending order with numbers of Black students/total students), percentage of Black students and:

• Prince William County (18,185 Black students of 89,577 total – 20%) – All hybrid
• Henrico County (18,128 of 50,191 – 36%) – In person
• Fairfax County (18,058 of 180,076 – 10%) – All hybrid
• Norfolk City (16,312 of 27,955 – 54%) – All hybrid
• Chesterfield County (16,011 of 60,904) – In person
• Richmond City (15,639 of 28,226 – 58%) – Predominantly remote
• Virginia Beach City (15,412 of 65,612 – 23%) – In person
• Newport News City (14,661 of 27,118 – 54%) – All hybrid
• Chesapeake City (12,870 of 39,673) – Partial in person
• Hampton City (11,587 of 19,225) – Partial in person
• Portsmouth City (9,736 of 13,395) – Partial hybrid
• Suffolk City (7,801 of 13,869) – All hybrid
• Stafford County (6,138 of 29,395) – All hybrid
• Roanoke City (5,953 of 13,854) – Partial in person
• Loudoun County  (5,722 of 81,319) – In person

Seven of the 15 Divisions with the most Black students are either in-person or partially in-person, the best ratings – less than 50%. (Statewide 76%)

Districts with a majority of black students

• Brunswick County – All hybrid
• Charles City County – All hybrid
• Danville City – Partial in person
• Essex County – Partial in person
• Franklin City – Partial hybrid
• Greensville County – All hybrid
• Hampton City – Partial in person
• Lynchburg City -Partial in person
• Martinsville City – Partial hybrid
• Newport News City – All hybrid
• Norfolk City – All hybrid
• Petersburg City – In person
• Portsmouth City – Partial hybrid
• Richmond City – predominantly remote
• Suffolk City – All hybrid
• Surry County – In person
• Sussex County – Partial in person

Seven of 16 Divisions with a majority of Black students are either in-person or partially in-person, the best ratings –  less than 50%. (Statewide 76%)