Paulding Exempted Village

Paulding Exempted Village is a small northwest Ohio district serving roughly 1,306 students across four schools — two elementaries, one middle, and one high school — covering grades PK through 12, with three buildings sharing one campus in Paulding and Oakwood Elementary School sitting in the village of Oakwood. As a district, Paulding Exempted Village ranks 305th of 773 Ohio districts (61st percentile, 3 stars), but that single number hides a wide internal spread: its four schools run from the 40th to the 95th percentile statewide.

Oakwood Elementary School is the district's flagship and one of Ohio's strongest elementaries — ranked 71st of 1,560 elementary schools (95th percentile, 5 stars) and holding 5 stars three years running, with an average proficiency of 89.8% across nine reported tests, roughly 28 points above the state. Paulding Elementary School (52nd percentile) and Paulding Middle School (56th percentile) are solidly mid-pack, while Paulding High School ranks lowest in the district at the 40th percentile (2 stars) despite graduating 99% of its students.

The comparison most worth knowing involves 5th grade math: Oakwood students scored 87.5% proficient versus 33.3% at Paulding Elementary — a 54-point gap on the same test in the same year, with a similarly low result the year before. In that same grade, ELA at Paulding Elementary came in above the state average, so the weakness looks specific to math and science rather than to the students themselves. Districtwide, chronic absenteeism rises with grade level, from 3.6% at Paulding Elementary (the district's best) to 10.8% at the high school, while middle school math is a relative strength and 6th grade ELA is the middle school's notable weak spot.