Amherst Exempted Village

Amherst Exempted Village is a four-building, PK–12 Ohio district serving 3,533 students and ranked 195th of 773 districts statewide (75th percentile, 4 stars), with a clean single-feeder setup in which each building owns its grades exclusively: Powers Elementary School (PK–3, 1,104 students), Walter G. Nord Middle School (grades 4–5, 556), Amherst Junior High School (6–8, 859), and Marion L Steele High School (9–12, 1,014). Note that Nord is named a middle school but classified as an elementary building.

Nord is the district's clear performance leader, beating the state in all five tested subjects by double digits — Math 5th grade 81.0% (state 59.1%), Science 5th 77.3%, Math 4th 79.9%, ELA 5th 81.0%, ELA 4th 71.3% — and posting the lowest chronic absenteeism at 10.8%. Amherst Junior High has held a stable 4-star position for three years (256th of 1,046) with Algebra I at 100% proficiency, and its 7th grade math rose from 52.2% to 68.3%. Steele graduates 98.9% of students and topped the state in all six end-of-course exams, led by English II (79.7% vs. 62.7%), though its statewide rank slipped from the 81st to the 68th percentile. Powers has strong 3rd grade ELA at 72.3%, but its 3rd grade math (56.5%) is the only reported school figure below the state rate and fell 9.8 points.

Across the district, absenteeism rises with grade level, from 10.8% at Nord to 28.3% at Steele, while proficiency margins broadly shrink. Economic need is nearly identical everywhere (33.51%–35.43% free/reduced lunch), so building differences are not driven by poverty rates, and per-pupil spending does not track results — Amherst Junior High spends the least ($6,953, a 2018–19 figure) yet produces the strongest margins. Watch items: Powers' 3rd grade math, high school Geometry (46.7%, the lowest EOC), and Steele's absenteeism.