Cincinnati Public Schools saw major wins in the latest state report cards, earning 3 stars overall, up from the 2.5-star score it's earned the last two years.
The new data also shows CPS has the greatest rate of students testing proficient or better on state tests for the 2025-26 school year among its peer urban districts, including Columbus, Dayton and Akron schools.
But the district saw a significant dip in its four-year graduation rate, falling to a 1-star rating in the graduation component after earning 2 stars last year.
The five-star ratings released Sept. 15 by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce are based on the district's performance during the 2025-26 school year. In the scale, 3 stars signifies a district is meeting state
standards. Anything less means it needs support to meet state standards and anything greater means it has exceeded standards.
But pressure to "make the grade" has intensified this year, school officials previously told The Enquirer, given that the district is asking residents for more revenue in the form of a 7-mill property tax levy in the general election.
The second-largest district in Ohio serving over 33,000 students shared parts of the good news at Monday night's school board meeting, where CPS Superintendent Shauna Murphy CPS informed members about the 3-star overall rating.
Murphy also shared that CPS doubled its score in the progress component, which measures the improvement or decline in student performance on state tests for the 2025-26 school year as compared to the previous two school years. After earning 2 stars in that component last year, CPS was granted 4 stars in this year's report card.
Those parceling through the district's report card might notice a watermark for ratings granted to George Hays-Jennie Porter School in the West End. That's because the elementary school is one of dozens of public and charter schools around the state flagged for "significant" testing anomalies in an education department investigation into standardized tests.
No allegations of misconduct by educators or test administrators have been brought against George Hays-Jennie Porter School. The matter remains under investigation, per the state department of education.
Of the state's 607 school districts, 38 failed to meet the overall performance standard with overall ratings of 2.5 stars or below. The districts that fell short include six in Southwest Ohio: Middletown City, Lockland Local, Mount Healthy City, North College Hill City, Clermont Northeastern Local and Finneytown Local.
Many districts in Ohio's largest cities, such as Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo, also failed to meet state standards, scoring 2 or 2.5 stars.
The report cards have for years struck debate among school officials and experts, with some claiming the revamped ratings, namely the college, career or military service readiness component, more equitably illustrate student growth.
But some urban districts that consistently score below 3 stars, including CPS before this year, have criticized the ratings, saying they unfairly pit them against affluent suburban districts, demonstrating that academic success is strongly correlated with an area's average household income..
How the district did in the 6 parts of the overall performance rating
The five-star scale, adopted in 2021, grants districts an overall star rating and individual ratings for six components: gap closing, achievement, progress, graduation, early literacy and college, career, workforce and military readiness.
Achievement – 2 stars. This tracks student performance on state tests and whether they met state thresholds, for grades 3-12.
Progress – 4 stars. This shows the improvement or decline in student performance by comparing state test scores for the 2025-26 school year to the state test scores from the previous two school years (2024-25 and 2023-24).
Graduation – 1 star. This measures the percentage of students who graduated within four and five years of entering high school.
Gap closing – 3 stars. This determines whether students of different races, income levels and abilities are meeting their respective performance goals. Factors like chronic absenteeism, gifted services and support for English learners are all considered in this category.
Early literacy – 2 stars. This measures student performance on third grade reading tests, the percentage of students promoted from third to fourth grade and how well districts support struggling readers.
College, career, workforce and military readiness – 3 stars. This uses metrics like state tests, AP exams, military enlistment, honors diplomas and technical assessments to determine the readiness of a graduating class to enter post-secondary education, the workforce or the armed forces.
Major wins in chronic absenteeism, test scores, but a dip in graduation rates
A major takeaway from the latest report card is CPS's significant improvement in its performance on state tests.
The district doubled its progress component star rating, meaning its students are showing noteable gains in the latest test scores compared to their performance the previous two school years, 2024-25 and 2023-24.
CPS also topped all of its peer urban districts in its rate of students testing proficient or better on state tests – a number known as the performance index. At a rate of 64.4%, CPS significantly surpassed the performance index of peer districts, like Cleveland and Columbus, which earned rates of 54.4% and 53.9%, respectively.
But in terms of graduation rates, the district fell near the bottom of the pack among urban districts. Youngstown City and Akron City each had the highest four-year graduation rates for the class of 2025, both surpassing the state's average of 90%. CPS's rate, however, fell to 80.6% after reaching over 86% last year – landing at a 1-star score for this year's report card.
However, CPS saw post-secondary wins in other areas, boosting the percentage of graduating students entering college, the workforce or armed forced to 64.5% – up from 63% last year.
This year the district also saw slight improvement in its chronic absenteeism rate, from 45.6% last year to 44.6% this year, resulting in a bump to a 3-star this year compared to 2 stars earned last year in the gap closing component.
The gap closing category determines whether students of different races, income levels and abilities are meeting state standards. Per the newly released district numbers, about 58% of CPS students are Black and more than 90% are considered economically disadvantaged. More than 22% of those enrolled are students with disabilities.
Which CPS schools received the best individual ratings?
Another piece of good news: The percentage of CPS schools that fell short of state standards in individual ratings fell this year.
Thirty-one of the 63 CPS schools rated this year, or 49% of all schools in the district, earned overall ratings of 2.5 stars or less. This marks a slight improvement compared to the 32 of the 62 schools, or 52%, that fell below the state's standard for overall performance last year.
Seventeen CPS schools exceeded the standard, scoring 3.5 stars or more. And four of those schools received 5-star scores, up from the one CPS school that earned 5 stars last year – Walnut Hills High School.
Those top-achieving schools are:
- Cheviot School, 3.5 stars
- Covedale School, 3.5 stars
- Hughes STEM High School, 3.5 stars
- George Hays-Jennie Porter School, 3.5 stars
- Shroder High School, 3.5 stars
- Silverton Elementary, 3.5 stars
- School For Creative and Performing Arts, 3.5 stars
- Clark Montessori High School, 3.5 stars
- Carson School, 3.5 stars
- Withrow University High School, 3.5 stars
- Fairview-Clifton German Language School, 4 stars
- Sands Montessori School, 4 stars
- Hyde Park School, 4.5 stars
- Spencer Center for Gifted and Exceptional Students, 5 stars
- Kilgour School, 5 stars
- Bramble School, 5 stars
- Walnut Hills High School, 5 Stars
Look up your CPS school's report card here
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati report card tops all peer urban districts in test scores
