OHIO HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMIC COMPARISONS
FOR CINCINNATI, CLEVELAND,
COLUMBUS, TOLEDO SCHOOL DISTRICTS
JANUARY 26, 2015
PREPARED BY SCOTT GERBER
GERBER ANALYTICS, LLC

 

The table below highlights the academic performance of the high schools in the Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo metro school districts based on each school's 10th grader performance on the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT). Included with the table are links that provide even greater insight and detail.

The table below includes: the Gerber Analytics state ranking for all public and private schools in Ohio; the number of 10th grade students who took the test; the overall Performance Index Score; the percentage of students who passed all five portions of the OGT; and the state rankings of each school for each subject test. The state rankings are based on the Performance Index Scores for all schools.

To highlight three of the schools, Cincinnati's Walnut Hills was ranked second overall in the state (out of almost thousand high schools). That is an enormous accomplishment when considering that Walnut Hills has a very large tenth grade class (389 students). Toledo Early College had two state top ten finishes in Math and Social Studies. John Hay Early College was ranked second in Mathematics.

Refer to last year's report for a better understanding of how this report is compiled.

Read on below to see how to view performance graphs for each school and to view all of the districts' schools separately.

STATE RANK / HIGH SCHOOL /
DISTRICT
DISTRICT
# STU.
PIS
PASS 5%
STATEWIDE RANKINGS
READING
MATH
WRITING
SCIENCE
SOCIAL STUDIES
15 - John Hay Early College High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
76
113.6
98.7%
17
2
23
65
12
91 - John Hay School of Science & Medicine
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
88
109.6
97.7%
157
63
138
166
52
224 - John Hay School of Architecture & Design
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
89
106.5
84.3%
231
94
211
293
348
312 - Whitney Young School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
11
104.8
72.7%
235
43
112
415
723
436 - Cleveland School Of The Arts High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
82
102.6
70.7%
212
672
294
561
264
576 - MC^2 STEM High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
105
100.1
31.4%
438
530
572
691
532
824 - Garrett Morgan Schl Of Science School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
55
88.9
49.1%
812
798
838
817
838
834 - Design Lab
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
41
87.6
46.3%
829
769
878
844
847
853 - New Technology West
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
77
85.6
33.8%
850
878
742
861
851
858 - John Marshall High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
232
85.1
40.5%
871
838
870
849
871
866 - James Ford Rhodes High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
245
84.0
38.0%
879
850
875
853
886
876 - Ginn Academy
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
54
83.0
29.6%
786
837
806
931
912
914 - Washington Park
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
63
77.7
36.5%
934
904
931
911
915
915 - SuccessTech Academy School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
37
77.5
21.6%
936
879
864
944
939
HIGH SCHOOL /
DISTRICT
DISTRICT
# STU.
PIS
PASS 5%
STATEWIDE RANKINGS
READING
MATH
WRITING
SCIENCE
SOCIAL STUDIES
934 - New Technology HS@East Tech
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
40
75.3
17.5%
912
919
939
942
930
940 - John F Kennedy High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
149
74.3
17.4%
939
930
925
941
948
941 - Max S Hayes High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
129
74.3
27.1%
957
920
954
915
931
943 - Health Careers Center High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
63
73.8
12.7%
884
932
848
970
982
944 - Collinwood High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
121
73.6
26.4%
938
950
929
949
935
952 - John Adams High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
135
72.4
14.8%
933
956
933
947
964
961 - Glenville High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
115
70.5
17.4%
967
938
950
975
943
968 - Law & Municipal Careers @ MLK
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
27
68.6
11.1%
961
968
952
976
971
972 - East Technical High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
80
67.4
21.3%
979
955
969
968
975
976 - Jane Addams Business Careers High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
71
66.6
16.9%
956
981
974
974
977
978 - Lincoln-West High School
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
219
66.0
16.4%
981
967
971
983
973
990 - Genesis Academy
Cleveland Municipal SD
Cleveland
35
61.2
5.7%
987
991
973
991
988

Trend Charts for Performance Index Scores, % Who Passed all Five Tests, and Number of 10th Grade Students Who Took The Test

While the table above provides a good, static comparison among metro schools, it does not provide readers with a "over time" perspective. Click on this link to see five year trend charts for each school's Performance Index Score and % Who Passed All Five Tests.

Click on this link to return to the table view.

The main questions generated from the graphs include:

How does Walnut Hills keep adding more students and keep getting better?

John Hay Early College is an excellent school. Can it be expanded to include more students?

What is happening to Columbus' Whetstone and Northland enrollment numbers over the last few years? Why are kids leaving?

Cincinnati's Withrow University enrollment numbers have grown as its academic performance declines. Why are students attending this school in greater numbers?

Columbus' East High School and South High School were completely renovated and reopened in 2008 and 2010, respectively. Why hasn't this led to better performance and higher enrollment?

What happened with Cincinnati's Robert Taft Information Technology high school? Did they pick up approximately 40 low performing students from another school?

School District-Only View

It is worthwhile to view each school district by itself. Click to view:

Click to view all school districts.

Comparative Analysis

While the performance numbers and trend charts are beneficial, what sets this web site apart from others is the comparative analysis that this site permits with other schools and within schools.

As expected, students who are enrolled in John Hay School of Architecture & Design do especially well in Math.

Given Toledo Technology Academy's name, Science would likely be their forte and it is. It is surprising that Math is their weakest subject.

One of the goals for this web site is to encourage communities to become better informed and to ask questions. These tools encourage it.

Comparing the Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo School Districts

Cincinnati leads the way - again. Cincinnati's Walnut Hills is the crown jewel of the metro school systems. It provides those who really care about academics with an excellent choice for a traditional high school environment that includes athletics and all of the other extra-curricular activities. Of course, it is more than simply a choice. Students (and their parents) have to choose to earn the right to attend the school. This means making the very difficult choices to work hard and to make sacrifices throughout the pre-K, elementary, and middle school years.

Also note how many students Walnut Hills benefits. While it is great that Cleveland and Toledo offer small, boutique schools for high achievers, the three Cleveland John Hay schools and the two Toledo schools at the top of this table benefit less students (totaling 339) than one Walnut Hills (with 389 students in 10th grade).

Here are several statements to consider. Great schools can only be great if the students (and their parent(s)) really care about learning. There has to be a critical mass of students who care to make this happen. A critical mass does not contain everyone -- it must contain the group who cares. The group of people who do care can be identified based on their previous hard work and great results. Walnut Hills does this. It is not possible to "focus" on an entire school district to make it great. If it happens at all, it would take decades and many generations of families to do this. No one has that much time. Likewise, districts need vocational school alternatives for those families who are unwilling to make sacrifices for education.

Corrections

Does this document include any mistakes? Hopefully not, the data was carefully entered and the numbers were double checked, but it is possible. Please send a Feedback message with any significant discrepancies. The revised document will be updated and placed online.

This analysis uses the results as originally reported by the Columbus City Schools.

You may forward this report to anyone you wish but please give proper attribution if you use any of this material. To assist with tracking, please provide others with this link:

http://gerberanalytics.com/ogt/ogt_major_metro_2014.php

I have a substantial "one-of-a-kind" database, and I am open to new analysis projects. If you have an education-related analysis project in mind that you think would benefit all Ohio schools, please contact me.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Scott Gerber
Gerber Analytics, LLC
GerberAnalytics.com

Click to submit a Feedback for any questions and/or to have your email address included so that you may be alerted to additional analysis.

 

Calculation of Performance Index Score (Adjusted)

Note that the Performance Index Score (Adjusted) is different from what you may have seen on the Ohio Department of Education’s Report Card. The calculation in this document is only for the 10th grade students. It was calculated as follows:

Ada High School


Subject
Below Basic Basic Proficient Accelerated Advanced

 

Mathematics 9.4% 9.4% 24.5% 20.8% 35.8%  
Reading 3.8% 5.7% 43.4% 35.8% 11.3%  
Science 3.8% 18.9% 26.4% 22.6% 28.3%  
Social Studies 15.1% 9.4% 24.5% 22.6% 28.3%  
Writing 5.7% 5.7% 39.6% 47.2% 1.9%  
             
Total of Above 37.7% 49.1% 158.5% 149.1% 105.7%  
Average of 5 7.5% 9.8% 31.7% 29.8% 21.1%  
Factor

0.3 0.6 1 1.1 1.2  
            Summation
Average * Factor 2.3 5.9 31.7 32.8 25.4 98

The new "Advanced Plus" designation was used randomly for some schools. To insure an "apples-to-apples" comparison, the percentage of students scoring "Advanced Plus" was added to the Advance category.