CINCINNATI — After a school year of administrative shakeups, Cincinnati Public Schools has scored 2.5 out of 5 stars overall on the Ohio State Report Card for 2023 through 2024.
The rating is a marginal improvement over last year's report card, which gave the district 2 stars out of 5.
The district's 2.5 rating is its overall score, but that rating is comprised of five different components: Achievement, Progress, Gap Closing, Graduation and Early Literacy.
CPS only scored above a 2-star rating on one category: Gap Closing. For that component, CPS scored 3 stars, which the report card says meets state standards in closing educational gaps. The district scored two stars in progress, achievement and early literacy.
However, the district was awarded just one star for graduation rates.
The 1-star rating means the district "needs significant support to meet state standards in graduation rates," the report card says.
Of the Cincinnati Public School students who entered ninth grade in the fall of 2019, only around 82.5% graduated in four years; Just 84.6% of students at a CPS high school graduated in five years, between 2018 and 2023.
Still, that's up from the previous year, when the school report card gave the district one star for graduation. For the 2022 through 2023 school year, just over 80% of CPS students graduated in four years.
Improved over last year is CPS's early literacy rating. Last year's report card gave them one star in that category, but this year the district received a two-star rank. For that year, the early literacy rate fell right around 58%, while this year it's improved to 64.9%.
"Our District’s performance on the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Report Card reflects significant progress in key accountability areas. I’m encouraged by the notable improvement in several tested areas and Early Literacy,” CPS Interim Superintendent Shauna Murphy said in a press release. “These achievements are encouraging, and demonstrate that our focused efforts are yielding results. While we are proud of our gains, we remain committed to our goals, and new focus areas this school year to improve student performance.”
Still, the state says the district "needs support to meet state standards."
Following last year's rough report card, the district released a statement saying it was still recovering from the pandemic while also showing growth.
This year, the district said its report card results show growth in 13 out of 20 tested areas, with seven of those showing significant growth.
CPS's detailed profile for the state report card shows there are 34,761 students enrolled in the district. Of those, the state says 85.7% are considered economically disadvantaged.
The state also says 43.5% of all students are chronically absent from school.
The district has been through a lot of administrative changes in the last few years: CPS named Iranetta Wright as its new superintendent in February of 2022, but by May 2024, she'd submitted her resignation after all six unions within CPS gave Wright a vote of no confidence.
Members of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Cincinnati Federation of Office Professionals, Cincinnati Association of Administrators and Supervisors, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Greater Cincinnati Building Trades and International Union of Operating Engineers Local 20 all expressed that they had lost support in Wright — something that had never happened in the history of the district.
Later on in May, CPS tapped Shauna Murphy, the CPS chief of student, family and community engagement, as its interim superintendent.
The second-largest school district in the Greater Cincinnati region — that's located in Ohio — rated much better and improved its scores over last year. For the 2022-2023 school year, Lakota Local Schools earned a 3.5-star rating, which met state standards.
This year, they've improved that to a 4.5-star rating overall, which exceeds state standards.
While Lakota schools struggled in the Progress category in last year's report card, that rating is up from 2 stars to 4 this year. It earned 4 stars or higher in every category but one: Early Literacy.
The district earned 3 stars there, which the state says meets expectations.
In 2021, Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill into law that greenlit changes to the state report card ranking system. Instead of letter grades, districts and schools are scored on a scale of one to five stars in areas including achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation and early literacy.
Plans are also in place to begin grading districts and schools on their college, career, workforce and military readiness down the road and have that factor into a school or district's overall rating, though the category did not impact scoring this year.
You can view the report card for your district here.
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