After a year that included anxiety and protests about how school closures would impact student performance, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s report card rating held steady at 2.5 stars. A district needs 3 stars to meet state standards in Ohio.
CMSD made progress in some areas, including its graduation rate and “college, career and workforce and military readiness” rating. The district also touted a 1 star improvement in the category that measures disparities between student groups.
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“We are particularly encouraged by the increase in our graduation rate, improvements in college and career readiness, and the growth demonstrated by our English language learners and Hispanic scholars,” CMSD CEO Warren Morgan wrote in a press release. “I want to thank our scholars and educators for staying focused as we collectively work to achieve the ambitious goals of our Building Brighter Futures plan.”
Two years ago, the district scored 3 stars, a rating that was met with great fanfare as it was the first time CMSD had achieved that level. In 2025, after the state introduced a new category called “college and career readiness,” the district dipped to 2.5 stars. Leaders said at the time the dip was expected because they didn’t yet have a way to collect data on all ways a student can show they’re ready for life after high school.
This year, though CMSD kept its 1 star rating in the post-graduation readiness category, it saw improvement in this metric by around 13 percentage points. In this report card, around half of the district’s students were considered ready for life after high school. That improvement comes alongside a 3 percentage-point increase in the overall graduation rate — a near return to the district’s pre-pandemic graduation rate. K-8 students also saw some modest gains in reading and math.
However, irregularities with testing data announced last week by the state education department cast a shadow over the CMSD report card, which included a note that it “may not accurately reflect student performance.” In the state’s review of testing data, officials identified three CMSD schools: Clark, Robinson G. Jones and Paul L. Dunbar.
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Those schools are among the highest performing schools districtwide, so a revision or voiding of their test scores could impact the district’s overall performance. CMSD noted in its press release of the report cards the district is “actively reviewing the matter and is cooperating with the state throughout the process.”
Among the “big eight” urban public school districts in Ohio, CMSD was not alone in scoring below three stars, which is what the state considers meeting expectations. Only three districts, Youngstown, Akron and Cincinnati, scored three stars or above.
What do the Ohio report card rankings measure?
The goal of report cards is to measure school quality at both the district and school-building levels. The state releases the scores, for both traditional public schools and charter schools, each fall. It bases them on standardized test scores, graduation rates and other data from the previous year.
Schools and districts are given an overall rating on a five-star scale. A rating of three stars means the school is meeting state standards. If it scores above three stars, it’s excelling. Below three, it has fallen short.
The state uses six areas to build the overall star score. It rates schools from one to five in those areas as well. Those are: early literacy, achievement, graduation rate, gap closing, progress and post-graduation readiness. Each of those areas contributes to the overall score.
A closer look at how CMSD scored across the six Ohio state report card categories
- Early literacy: CMSD got 1 star in this category, which measures how students from kindergarten through third grade are learning to read. That’s important because typically after third grade students shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn,” so if kids aren’t reading fluently by then, they could fall behind.
- Achievement: The district got 2 stars in this category, which gauges overall academic performance — across all subjects — using the standardized tests that public school students take every spring.
- Graduation rate: CMSD scored 1 star in this measure, which looks at the four-and five-year graduation rate of a school. K-8 schools are not rated on this measure.
- Post-graduation readiness: The district scored 1 star in this category. The state has 11 different ways it tracks if a student is ready for life after high school. The more students have completed at least one of those things, the higher a school scores in this category. A student is counted as “ready” if they’ve scored well on college entrance tests, enrolled in an apprenticeship program or enlisted in the military, among other things.
- Gap closing: CMSD scored 4 stars in this category, which tries to measure how well schools are serving different groups like English language learners and students with special needs. It breaks down a school’s standardized test scores by factors including race and disability to check if there are disparities between student groups and factors in other data like chronic absenteeism.
- Progress: CMSD scored 4 stars in this category, which shows how a school has improved from year to year by comparing how much students at a given school have improved compared to statewide student improvement.
For a more detailed description of each measure, check out the state’s guide here.
Testing irregularities noted on state report cards
The district’s report card also includes a note from the state about the issues found with testing data at three elementary schools. Each of those schools is among the highest-rated K-8 schools in the district, scoring 4 stars or above. Their report cards, as well as the district’s overall report card, noted that student performance may not be accurately reflected due to the test score issues.
The three schools are among the 52 schools where state officials found “significant testing anomalies.” Those inconsistencies can include things like a test that was completed very quickly or an exam where a lot of wrong answers were switched to correct ones at the last minute.
In addition to the three CMSD schools, a dozen Cuyahoga County charter schools also had their test scores flagged by the state. Those schools also have a note about the test score issues. All schools on the list have until this Friday, Sept. 18, to give the state follow up information that will determine whether a deeper investigation is necessary.
The statewide review of the spring 2026 testing data was triggered after Columbus City Schools self-reported to the state unusual data trends at two high schools, which led to a voiding of their test results.
