Summary:
Symmes Valley Local in Ohio is a small district with just two schools — Symmes Valley Elementary School, which serves grades PK–8, and Symmes Valley High School, which serves grades 9–12 — together enrolling 741 students, with about 74% in the elementary/middle grades and 26% in high school.
The two schools are headed in very different directions, and the district's overall 3-star, 57th-percentile rating hides that split. Symmes Valley Elementary School is the clear standout: it climbed from the 64th to the 76th percentile over three years, moved from 3 stars to 4 stars, and in 2025–2026 scored above the state on 14 of 15 tests, including a perfect 100% on Algebra I. Its chronic absenteeism (21.2%) is also below the district rate of 24.7%. Symmes Valley High School sits at the 23rd percentile with 1 star, and its chronic absenteeism is 34.7%, well above both the elementary school and the district. Its weakest results are Geometry (9.9 vs. the state's 43.3), Biology (50.0 vs. 67.0), English II (53.7 vs. 62.7), and American Government (62.3 vs. 71.6).
The high school is not without strengths: its graduation rate is 98.4%, Algebra I jumped from 28.2 to 61.5 (essentially at the state's 61.6), and American History (75.0) is above the state's 73.2. Notably, the high school spends more per student ($10,816 vs. $9,157) and has smaller classes (11.0 vs. 14.3 students per teacher) than the elementary school, so resources alone do not explain the gap — though that spending data is from 2018–2019. One caution for parents: free/reduced lunch figures are blank, and test-taker counts are unavailable, so large End of Course swings may reflect small cohorts. The takeaway is a strong, improving PK–8 program feeding a high school that needs the most attention, particularly in Geometry and attendance.
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