CINCINNATI — When Ohio released this year's school report cards, Western Hills University High School was among the lowest-scoring in Cincinnati Public Schools.
CPS, the largest school district in the Greater Cincinnati region, scored just two stars out of a possible five. Western Hills had an overall score of 2, receiving 1 star for graduation, achievement and gap-closing.
"Needs support to meet state standards," reads the description for the 2-star rating.
Cincinnati Board of Education President Eve Bolton said that while the numbers look bad, the report card is "a very unfair assessment of where we are in the work that our kids and staff do."
"The way that the report card is designed and organized, it is designed for highly urban highly diverse, with high poverty schools, to have us fail," Bolton said.
Bolton said overcrowding in the classroom and better efforts for students for whom English is their second language are reflections of some of Western Hills' scores specifically. Jasmine Douglas, a Western Hills mother, said she agrees.
"Sometimes it is so overcrowded that some children can't even sit down and learn, they have to stand up against the walls," Douglas said.
CPS said it plans to improve the education, programming and learning environment by implementing more career path opportunities, adding graduation counselors and attendance social workers, and maintaining its EMT Program.
Bolton said the district plans to focus on individual schools and cohorts moving forward.
"It's a willful decision on the part in Columbus, but we will use this standard, we will try desperately to improve on behalf of our kids and taxpayers," said Bolton.
You can view the report card for your district here.
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