Bennett Venture Academy

Bennett Venture Academy is a K–8 charter school serving 460 students on Bennett Road in north Toledo, Ohio, where it operates as its own district — one of the lowest-ranked districts in the state, at 639th of 773. Families considering it should know that it has never ranked above the 27th percentile or below the 18th in ten reported school years, holding a steady 1-star rating around the 20th percentile, with a mild drift downward since 2021.

Locally, the school is mid-pack rather than bottom. Of eleven nearby schools, Bennett Venture Academy ranks fifth overall and second among the eight that serve grades K–8, behind only Old West End Academy Elementary School and ahead of Whittier Elementary School, Larchmont Elementary School, and Rosa Parks Elementary School. Its most distinctive resource is class size: a 9.1-to-1 student-teacher ratio in 2024-25, far below Ann Jerkins-Harris Academy of Excellence at 13.9-to-1 and most neighbors at 19-to-1 or higher. Spending is the lowest in the group at $7,583 per student (2018-19 data), yet results generally beat most Toledo City and Washington Local neighbors. All ten nearby schools sit between the 1st and 35th statewide percentiles.

The biggest obstacles are attendance and early-grade achievement. Chronic absenteeism reached 61.1% in 2025-26 — the highest of any nearby school, up from 35.1% four years earlier, while the strongest local performers, Old West End and Greenwood Elementary School, sit at 14.5% and 16.3%. Overall proficiency runs about 20 points below the state average. Grades 5, 7, and 8 perform comparatively well — 7th grade math is essentially at state parity — while grades 3, 4, and 6 are the weak spots, with 3rd grade reading at 25.0% versus the state's 63.4%. Upper-grade gains may also reflect students leaving before 8th grade, so they are worth watching rather than assuming.