Trending
The Ohio Department of Education released its 2025-2026 School Report Cards on Tuesday.
Districts and schools receive overall ratings of 1-5 stars in half-star increments. A three-star rating meets state standards, a five significantly exceeds them, and a one "needs significant support to meet state standards."
Districts are also rated on six components: achievement, progress, gap closing, early literacy, graduation, and college, career, workforce, military readiness.
Statewide, the state has made gains in literacy, with statewide English language arts proficiency reaching a five-year high of 62.2%, according to a news release from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's Office.
Jonathan Ludwig, superintendent, East Liverpool City Schools, addressed the Ohio State Report by listing what the district is proud of and what they feel they need to improve on and how they are addressing the areas with a need for improvement.
The "East Liverpool City School District…[earned] an overall rating of 2.5 stars," Ludwig said. "The district is being direct with families and the community about what improved and what didn't, and about the work already underway to move the needle further."
When emphasizing the aspects that the district is proud of, Ludwig said "no school system in the county gives students more ways to find their path than East Liverpool City Schools. That commitment shows clearly in this year's results."
Ludwig shared that the Career-Technical Planning District (Career Tech) held its five-star rating and has the strongest report card of any entity in the district. Career Tech also improved federal indicators from six of nine met in the previous year to eight of nine this year. Students graduating meeting a college career, workforce or military readiness mark increased from 18.8% three years ago to 63.9% now. The district wide improvement rate has been "almost entirely on career-technical pathways, industry credentials, technical assessments and hands-on programs that lead directly to a diploma with options attached," Ludwig said.
Ludwig also pointed out that North Elementary School gained a half star overall and said that increase driven by progress has moved the school from two to three stars. He noted that this is a real measurable growth that happened in a single school year.
Ludwig also said chronic absenteeism, gifted identification and services and gifted-value-added on a district-wide level each earned full marks again this year.
Ludwig said the district would not bury the parts of the report that are hard to read when addressing areas the district needs to do better and noted they are already addressing those areas.
Mathematics growth, which Ludwig said is the district's biggest challenge and has a value-added growth that was below expectations in four out of five of the district's schools this year is not new information for the district.
"It's why our SB 19 math intervention work is already underway, and mathematics growth is now a named priority for our Building and District Leadership Team this year," Ludwig said.
The district's gap closing fell one point going from four stars to three stars, with the district earning 43.1% of the available points against a 45% threshold which is a margin of under two percentage points.
Ludwig said that two of the closest misses for the district came in economic disadvantage math performance at the junior high and high school were by tenths of a point.
"Those exactly the kind of gains we believe we can close next year, and we're reviewing them," Ludwig said.
The rate of chronic absenteeism at the high school continues to be too high and remains an area where improvement is needed even though the school has reduced its rate every year since the 2022-2023 school year.
"We're setting a specific named improvement target this year and using our Early Warning System data, which we collect weekly, to reach the students driving that number sooner," Ludwig said.
He also that an honest explanation, not a shrug, is deserved for the drop in one early literacy measure and noted that the state has changed how students promoted to fourth are counted from "promoted by any route" to "promoted by meeting a test score requirement."
That change alone accounts for most of the decline our elementary schools show on paper," Ludwig said. "But the number underneath it, third grade reading proficiency at 42.6% and 55.7%, is real, it matters and our elementary literacy team is convening on it regardless of how the state chooses to measure it."
Ludwig said the district has a commitment, and the report cards shows a district quickly expanding in opportunity faster than anything they can measure and that they are being honest in that the achievement and growth in the classrooms haven't caught up everywhere yet, the district is proud of the first, owning the second and providing their full attention to both this school year.
"Our Career Technical Planning District and the growth we've built in career readiness are something this whole community should be proud of," Ludwig said. "At the same time, our math growth and parts of our gap closing results aren't where we want them, and I'd rather tell our families that plainly then dress it up. We know exactly which pieces we're working on, and we're already working on them."
Columbiana County school report cards
Beaver Local Schools:
Overall -- 4.5 stars
Achievement - 4 stars
Progress - 4 stars
Gap Closing - 4 stars
Graduation - 5 stars
Early Literacy - 3 stars
Readiness - 4 stars
Columbiana Exempted Village:
Overall -- 5 stars
Achievement - 5 stars
Progress - 4 stars
Gap Closing - 5 stars
Graduation - 5 stars
Early Literacy - 4 stars
Readiness - 4 stars
Crestview Local Schools:
Overall -- 4 stars
Achievement - 4 stars
Progress - 2 stars
Gap Closing - 4 stars
Graduation - 5 stars
Early Literacy - 2 stars
Readiness - 4 stars
East Liverpool City Schools:
Overall -- 2.5 stars
Achievement - 2 stars
Progress - 2 stars
Gap Closing - 3 stars
Graduation - 2 stars
Early Literacy - 1 star
Readiness - 3 stars
East Palestine City Schools:
Overall -- 3 stars
Achievement - 3 stars
Progress - 2 stars
Gap Closing - 4 stars
Graduation - 4 stars
Early Literacy - 2 stars
Readiness - 4 stars
Leetonia Exempted Village Schools:
Overall -- 3 stars
Achievement - 3 stars
Progress - 1 star
Gap Closing - 5 stars
Graduation - 3 stars
Early Literacy - 4 stars
Readiness - 2 stars
Lisbon Exempted Village:
Overall -- 3.5 stars
Achievement - 3 stars
Progress - 3 stars
Gap Closing - 3 stars
Graduation - 4 stars
Early Literacy - 1 star
Readiness - 5 stars
Salem City Schools:
Overall -- 3 stars
Achievement - 3 stars
Progress - 2 stars
Gap Closing - 3 stars
Graduation - 4 stars
Early Literacy - 2 stars
Readiness - 2 stars
Southern Local Schools:
Overall -- 3 stars
Achievement - 2 stars
Progress - 1 star
Gap Closing - 3 stars
Graduation - 5 stars
Early Literacy - 3 stars
Readiness - 3 stars
United Local Schools:
Overall -- 4 stars
Achievement - 3 stars
Progress - 2 stars
Gap Closing - 4 stars
Graduation - 5 stars
Early Literacy - 3 stars
Readiness - 5 stars
Wellsville Local Schools:
Overall -- 3 stars
Achievement - 2 stars
Progress - 3 stars
Gap Closing - 2 stars
Graduation - 3 stars
Early Literacy - 2 stars
Readiness - 3 stars
Mahoning County school report cards
South Range Local Schools:
Overall -- 4 stars
Achievement - 5 stars
Progress - 2 stars
Gap Closing - 5 stars
Graduation - 5 stars
Early Literacy - 4 stars
Readiness - 3 stars
West Branch Local Schools:
Overall -- 4.5 stars
Achievement - 4 stars
Progress - 4 stars
Gap Closing - 5 stars
Graduation - 5 stars
Early Literacy - 3 stars
Readiness - 3 stars
To view more districts or individual school data, go to the Department of Education's website and search for a school or district.