Summary:
Amherst, Ohio is served by four schools in the Amherst Exempted Village district — Powers Elementary School (PK–3), Walter G. Nord Middle School (grades 4–5), Amherst Junior High School (grades 6–8), and Marion L Steele High School (grades 9–12) — together enrolling about 3,533 students across the full PK–12 span. The district ranks 195 out of 773 Ohio districts, placing it in the 75th percentile with 4 stars, a top-quartile system overall.
Walter G. Nord Middle School and Amherst Junior High School are the clearest standouts. Walter G. Nord has the lowest chronic absenteeism at 10.8%, far below the district's 18.4%, while posting 81% proficiency in 5th grade math and 77.3% in 5th grade science, both well above state rates. Amherst Junior High has held steady at the 75th–76th percentile with 4 stars for three years and reported 100% proficiency in its advanced Algebra I and Geometry end-of-course exams — a striking result, though it likely reflects a small, selective cohort.
Marion L Steele High School is a more mixed picture: a 98.9% graduation rate and strong Biology (81%) and English II (79.7%) results, but Geometry (46.7%) and Algebra I (72.4%) trail district levels, chronic absenteeism is the group's highest at 28.3%, and its rank slipped to the 68th percentile with 3 stars. Powers Elementary is solid in 3rd grade ELA (72.3%) but saw math fall to 56.5%, below the state rate. Notably, poverty rates and student-teacher ratios are nearly identical across all four schools, yet absenteeism spans 17.5 percentage points — the sharpest difference between them.
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