Van Wert City

Van Wert City has four schools serving students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade: one early childhood center, one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school, with 1,943 students enrolled in total. The district overall is rated 486 of 773 in Ohio, at the 37th percentile with 2 stars, but that mid-range district rating hides large differences between individual schools.

Van Wert Middle School is the academic bright spot, and the only 3-star school in the group. It ranked 466 of 1,046 schools in 2025–2026, at the 55th percentile, up from 2 stars and the 46th–47th percentile in the two prior years. Its Algebra I proficiency is 78.2%, well above the district’s 57.5% and the state’s 61.6%, and 8th grade science, 6th grade ELA, and 7th grade ELA also beat state averages, though 7th and 8th grade math lag behind. Van Wert Elementary School has the best attendance in the group, with 10.5% chronic absenteeism versus the district’s 16.8%, and is strong in 4th grade math and ELA, but weaker in 3rd grade math and ELA, and its rating slipped from 3 stars to 2 stars. Van Wert High School graduates 96.6% of students yet is rated just 1 star, at the 29th percentile, with most tested subjects below state and the highest chronic absenteeism at 24.1%. Van Wert Early Childhood Center serves PK–K, so it has no test scores or rank history.

For parents, the main takeaway is that attendance and achievement vary widely by school. Van Wert City’s high school has the highest reported free/reduced lunch rate at 85.07%, along with higher absenteeism and lower test proficiency, while the middle school has the lowest student-teacher ratio at 13.6 and the strongest results. Spending per student is similar at the high school ($9,488) and elementary ($9,474), yet outcomes differ substantially, so school-level data is more useful than the district average when comparing options.