Youngstown Academy of Excellence

Youngstown Academy of Excellence is the only school in the Youngstown Academy of Excellence district, so families here are looking at a single building rather than weighing options against one another. It serves 243 students in grades K–8 on Rigby Street in Youngstown, with a 22:1 student–teacher ratio in 2024–2025. Statewide, the district ranks 695th of 773 Ohio districts, placing it in the bottom tenth.

Test results trail Ohio across the board. In 2025–2026 the school averaged 28.8% proficient across its 14 tested subject-and-grade results, against a 60.1% state average — a gap of about 31 points — and every tested area fell below the state in both years. Reading is the stronger subject, with ELA averaging 35.9% versus 20.8% in math. Sixth grade is the weakest point, at 8% in math and 15.4% in ELA. The clear bright spot is 8th grade math, at 50% proficient — only 2 points below the state — after jumping 42.3 points in a year. Fifth grade science rose 20.7 points, and 4th grade ELA rose 18.6 points.

Overall proficiency improved from 23.9% to 28.8%, narrowing the state gap from roughly 35 points to 31, though most of that gain came from just a few subjects. Chronic absenteeism is 71.5%, meaning about 7 in 10 students missed at least 10% of school days. The free/reduced-lunch rate, enrollment trends, and current spending figures are not reported; the only spending data available is $7,861 per student from 2018–2019.