Akron City

Akron City is an urban district in Akron, Ohio, with 42 schools serving roughly 19,760 students across grades K-12 — 25 elementary schools, 7 middle schools, 9 high schools, and 1 alternative school. The district ranks 643rd of 773 Ohio districts, in the 17th percentile with 1 star, and its enrollment is split between many small-to-mid-sized elementaries and a few very large comprehensive high schools.

A handful of schools dramatically outperform the rest. Akron Early College High School is the clear standout — ranked 3rd of 795 high schools, 100th percentile, 5 stars, with a 100.0% graduation rate and only 3.6% chronic absenteeism. National Inventors Hall of Fame School Center for STEM ranks in the 85th percentile with 4 stars, while Miller-South Visual Performing Arts and Windemere Community Learning Center each earn 3 stars. At the other end, Crouse Community Learning Center ranks 1,535th of 1,560 elementary schools with 0 stars and 47.3% absenteeism, and I Promise School sits in the 5th percentile among middle schools. The large comprehensive high schools — Garfield, North, Buchtel, and East — all fall in the bottom 12% of high schools.

The district graduation rate is 90.3%, but test proficiency trails the state in every major subject: Geometry 22.7 vs. 43.3, Biology 40.8 vs. 67.0, and 5th-grade Math 33.9 vs. 59.1. Chronic absenteeism averages about 36.4% across schools against a district rate of 40.9%, and it tracks closely with low performance. Ratings are top-heavy: only 1 school has 5 stars, 1 has 4, 2 have 3, 6 have 2, 24 have 1, 6 have 0, and 2 have no current rating. Notably, spending and class size do not simply predict outcomes — I Promise has the lowest per-student spending and lowest student-teacher ratio yet low scores, while Akron Early College has a high ratio and the best results.