Richmond, Virginia offers many educational opportunities. Its urban school system is an award-winning, certified excellent education district. There is also an expansive number of higher education colleges and universities, scattered throughout the Greater Richmond region. Also, the surrounding counties (Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover) are also very successful school systems, Henrico establishing a first by initiating the Laptop program in 2001, the first in the nation to do so. Chesterfield and Hanover are also each systems with Blue Ribbon Schools. In latest years, the towns of Ashland, Virginia and Mechanicsville, Virginia have both been voted as the nation's top place to raise kids by BusinessWeek.
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Elementary and secondary schools
Richmond City Public Schools, the city's public school system, comprises 5 high schools, 9 middle schools, 28 elementary schools, and 9 special-purpose/preschools. In 2011, Mayor Dwight C. Jones announced the replacement of Broad Rock Elementary, Oak Grove Elementary, and Huguenot High schools in the South Richmond district, along with the replacement of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle in the East End district. The elementary school replacements have broken ground, while Huguenot remains to be replaced. The elementary schools are ranked highly among urban area school districts, while the middle and high schools are a bit more rougher. In a 2009 Richmond Times-Dispatch article, titled "Dropping In",it was declared that the high school dropout rate was "hovering" at around 15 percent, a number that the city is now working to improve on.
Elementary schools
Middle schools
High schools
Private schools and advanced schools
There are also a number of private schools in the city, including Saint Gertrude High School, founded in 1922. It is one of the city of Richmond's oldest functioning private schools. Also notable are the special purpose (or advanced) schools, such as notable magnet school Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies, a school that receives a little over 2000 submissions a year. It is among the leading high schools in the nation, and maintains an excellent SAT score average of 2047, well over the national average. The International Baccalaureate programs are also located in many schools throughout the metro region, with all three stages of the IB (Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme, and Diploma Programme) being offered at elementary, middle, and high schools abroad. Examples include Three Chopt Elementary in Henrico, Moody Middle (also in Henrico), and Hanover High School, in Hanover.
Universities and colleges
Richmond is known as being somewhat of a college town with a big city feel. There are several universities known nationwide, and some locally known. Most notable are the regions two Division I schools, the University of Richmond, and Virginia Commonwealth University, or as it is affectionately called, "VCU". The former is a small, suburban private institution, while the latter is a public, Carnegie-certified research university, noted for its "high research levels". It sits on two campuses, the Monroe Park campus, and the MCV campus. VCU has over 32,000 students, making it the largest university in the Commonwealth in terms of number of students. Also, its athletics division, collectively known as the VCU Rams, garnered national attention when the men's basketball team reached the 2011 NCAA Final Four, the semifinals of the college basketball division. Here is a complete list of Richmond's colleges and universities: