Elementary Schools in Shaker Heights City

Elementary schools in Shaker Heights City consist of four K–5 buildings — Lomond Elementary School, Onaway Elementary School, Mercer Elementary School, and Fernway Elementary School — with a combined enrollment of 1,651 students. Building size varies from 326 students at Fernway to 467 at Lomond, a spread of about 43%. All four carry the same district report card line (rank 355 of 773 Ohio districts, 54th percentile, 3 stars), which conceals real differences between the buildings.

On performance, Onaway Elementary School is the current leader, ranking at the 70th percentile with 4 stars in both of the last two years, scoring above the district average on all seven tested measures in 2025-26 and above the state on six. Fernway Elementary School is the only school above both district and state averages on all seven measures, has the group's best single year (82nd percentile, 4 stars in 2023-24) and the lowest chronic absenteeism at 7.7%. Mercer Elementary School is the steadiest, holding between the 42nd and 45th percentile all three years with 2 stars, and shows a distinctive strength in 5th grade ELA (81.8%) alongside weaker math. Lomond Elementary School, the largest building, has slid to the 38th percentile with 2 stars and posts the highest absenteeism at 21.9%.

Two patterns stand out for families. First, chronic absenteeism lines up most closely with building rank: the two highest-ranked schools report absenteeism between 7.7% and 10.3%, while the lowest-ranked reports 21.9%. Second, 5th grade is the pressure point everywhere — math and science are consistently the weakest results at each school, and 5th grade science alone spans 35 points between the highest and lowest building in the same district and year. Per-student spending (2018-19 figures) does not track with outcomes: the lowest-spending school posts the strongest results.