Bedford City

Bedford City serves roughly 2,887 students across seven schools: four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and one alternative school, with Central Primary School and Glendale Primary School covering only PK–2 and therefore having no state test-score records. The Bedford City district is ranked 670 of 773 in Ohio, at the 13th percentile with 1 star, and every tested school in 2025–2026 also earned 1 star.

Attendance and graduation vary widely across the district. Chronic absenteeism district-wide is 41.4%, but it ranges from 27.3% at Carylwood Intermediate School to 59.0% at Bedford High School, the highest in the district. Excel Academy (45.2%) and Heskett Middle School (41.2%) are also above the district rate, while Columbus Intermediate School (29.2%), Central Primary (27.8%), and Glendale Primary (34.0%) are below it. Graduation rates are just as uneven: Bedford High graduates 98.5% of students, well above the district's 89.4%, while Excel Academy graduates 41.0%.

Test scores show a few bright spots against an otherwise low-performing picture. Carylwood Intermediate has the district's strongest elementary results — 65.7% proficient in 5th grade ELA and 41.7% in 5th grade math — though both remain below state. Heskett Middle School is the biggest outlier: its Algebra I (80.8%) and Geometry (81.8%) End-of-Course scores far exceed state averages, even as its grade-level math and science scores are very low, suggesting a small advanced group rather than schoolwide mastery. Excel Academy faces the steepest challenges, including 0% in Algebra I, 9.5% in Biology, and the highest student-teacher ratio at 25.2. Families should note data limits: lunch-status figures are blank, spending data is only from 2018–2019, and PK–2 schools have no test scores.