Summary
Emerson Academy is a K–8 charter school in Dayton, Ohio, with 674 students, operating as its own district. In 2025–2026 it ranked 1,159 of 1,560 Ohio schools — the 26th percentile with 1 star — an improvement over 2024–2025's 14th percentile, but still bottom-quartile statewide. At the district level, its rank is 615 of 773, the 20th percentile, also 1 star.
Among 11 nearby schools, Emerson places third — behind Harman Elementary School (97th percentile, 5 stars) and Deca Prep (32nd percentile, 2 stars) — and above River's Edge Montessori Elementary School, Ruskin Elementary School, Cleveland Elementary School, Alliance Community Schools Inc. dba Dayton Leadership Academy, Horizon Science Academy Dayton Downtown, Dayton SMART Elementary School, Edison Elementary School, and City Day Community School. Its 674 students make it larger than most of them; only Deca Prep (950) is bigger. Math is a relative strength: 4th-grade math was 70.7% proficient, above the state's 67.3% and higher than most nearby schools except Harman. English language arts is weaker, with 3rd-grade ELA at 31.8% and 8th-grade ELA at 33.9%, both far below state averages. Chronic absenteeism fell from 54.8% in 2021–2022 to 38.2% in 2025–2026, but is still higher than at Cleveland, Ruskin, River's Edge Montessori, Deca Prep, and Harman. Per-student spending was $8,281 in 2018–2019 — closer to nearby charters than to Dayton City schools.
The clearest bright spot is the school's performance for African American students, who ranked in the 64th percentile with 3 stars in 2025–2026 — far above the school's overall 26th percentile — though the figure has varied year to year. (These subgroup ranks show how well the school serves each group compared with statewide peers.) Other subgroup results are lower: students from low-income families at the 28th percentile, male students 26th, female students 23rd, and special education students at the 7th percentile in 2024–2025. A few caveats: free/reduced-lunch data were not available for Emerson, spending figures are from 2018–2019 only, and subgroup rankings can swing from year to year.
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