Summary
Stepstone Academy is a K–8 charter elementary school at 3328 Carnegie Ave in Cleveland, Ohio, serving 186 students as its own single-school district.
On 2025–26 Ohio State Tests, Stepstone Academy ranks 1,219th of 1,560 schools statewide—about the 22nd percentile—with a 1-star rating. That is a major improvement from a decade ago, when it ranked in the 4th percentile with 0 stars, but it remains in the bottom quarter. Compared with nearby schools, Stepstone Academy is ahead of Marion-Sterling Elementary School and several other Cleveland schools, but behind Broadway Academy and Campus International School, which average much higher proficiency. Chronic absenteeism is a major concern: 72.2% of students are chronically absent, far above Campus International School's 18.8% and the Cleveland Municipal district rate of 54.3%. The school spends $16,494 per student (2018–19 data), the highest in this comparison group, and its student–teacher ratio has improved to 15.5.
Stepstone Academy's results are very uneven by grade. Third grade is a clear strength: ELA proficiency is 72.4%, above the state average and above Broadway Academy, while third-grade math is 60.7%, essentially at state level. But from fourth grade on, performance drops sharply. In grades 5–8, math and science are far below state: 5th-grade math is 0%, 6th-grade math 7.7%, 8th-grade math 11.8%, 5th-grade science 5.3%, and 8th-grade science 17.6%. One bright spot is that the school's African American student subgroup ranks at the 61st percentile with 3 stars, well above the school's overall 22nd percentile, while the low-socioeconomic subgroup ranks at the 26th percentile. For parents, the key takeaway is that Stepstone has improved and shows real early-grade strengths, but very high absenteeism and a middle-school slide in math and science are the biggest challenges to watch.
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