For a comprehensive booklet on the educational benefits of Greater Richmond, click here.

Blue Ribbon Schools

Twelve Greater Richmond schools have been named No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon Schools since 2003, the first year of the modified program. Nineteen schools in Greater Richmond (public and private) achieved Blue Ribbon status under the earlier program that began in 1982.
Public Schools
  • Each locality in Greater Richmond has its own public school system and provides a full range of career prep, college prep, and honors/advanced placement classes.
  • Four vocational/technical centers offer trade and industry classes and apprenticeship training. More than 152,600 students are enrolled in the four systems.
  • In addition to magnet and specialty programs in each locality, Greater Richmond's gifted students are eligible for accelerated programs at the regional Governor's School for Government and International Studies in Richmond and the Governor's School for Arts and Technology in Petersburg.
  • The regional MathScience Innovation Center provides special facilities and classes in science, math, and technology that would not be feasible for individual school systems.
  • Virginia has adopted education reform called Standards of Learning (SOLs). The program sets high, clear, measurable academic standards on a statewide basis and then measures student progress in meeting those standards. Students are tested in English, math, science, and history in the third, fifth, and eighth grades and in high school.
Private Schools
  • Seventy-seven private and parochial elementary and secondary schools have enrollment of more than 14,000.
  • Many private high schools are college preparatory schools with virtually all graduates going on to four-year colleges.
  • The International Baccalaureate program, study abroad, community service, and military training are available.
  • Special weekend and evening schools offering classes in language and culture have been created by the local German, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean communities.
Higher Education
  • Full range of associate, undergraduate, and graduate degree programs, including business, engineering, law, and medicine
  • Five four-year and five two-year and special institutions
  • Total enrollment more than 66,000
  • More than 9,400 degrees conferred annually
  • School of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a partner with industry
  • Strong evening programs, for-profit career schools, and continuing education programs

U.S. News and World Report rankings:

  • Twenty of Virginia Commonwealth University's graduate and professional programs are among the best of their kind
  • University of Richmond has topped the Master's Universities-South category for 11 years
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    Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is ranked by the Carnegie Foundation as a Doctoral Research - University Extensive and received $223 million in externally funded research in FY08. John B. Fenn, research professor in the Department of Chemistry and affiliate professor of Chemical Engineering at VCU, was one of three recipients of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

    VCU includes

    • 32,284 students in more than 200 degree and certificate programs
    • 15 schools and one college
    • Innovative collaboration between the Schools of Business and Engineering
    • A unique Master's degree program in advertising taught in an ad agency environment
    • VCU Medical Center, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers

    University of Richmond, the area's largest private university, includes

    • Jepson School of Leadership Studies, the nation's first undergraduate school of leadership studies
    • Unique combination of undergraduate and graduate programs through its schools of arts and sciences, business, leadership studies, law and continuing studies
    • Ranked one of the best liberal arts universities in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

    Randolph-Macon College, an undergraduate, coeducational college of the liberal arts located in the town of Ashland in Hanover County.

    Virginia State University, one of Virginia's two land-grant institutions, with a 236-acre main campus and 416-acre agricultural research facility at Randolph Farm.

    Virginia Union University, a private, coeducational, liberal arts institution founded in 1865 to provide a quality education to young African-Americans.
     
    Community Colleges

    J. Sargeant Reynolds and John Tyler Community Colleges offer AS and AAS degrees, certificate programs, and credit and non-credit classes in occupational and technical areas. They have created new programs in response to local industry needs, including

    • Information technology certification classes
    • Customer Service Academy
    • Machine technology/high performance manufacturing programs
    • Biotechnology, chemical, and engineering technician programs
    • Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology programs developed in coopertion with SEMATECH, the consortium of semiconductor manufacturers

    The community colleges also provide customized training programs for individual companies; WorkKeys job profiling and skills assessment; adult continuing education classes; and workshops, conferences, and seminars.

    Private, for-profit career schools in the area provide additional degree and non-degree training options, particularly in computer and business fields.