West Park Bilingual Academy

West Park Bilingual Academy is a K–8 school at 12913 Bennington Ave in Cleveland's West Park neighborhood, serving 204 students as its own single-school district. It ranks 1,391 of 1,560 Ohio elementary/middle schools in 2025–26 (11th percentile, 1 star), and it has never reached the 15th percentile in the ten years on record — though 2025–26 is its best showing since 2017–18 and a clear recovery from its 2022–23 low point. With roughly 20–25 students per grade, year-to-year swings should be read with caution.

Every one of the 14 reported grade and subject results falls below the state average, with average proficiency of roughly 30% versus about 60% statewide. The weakest points cluster in the middle grades: 5th-grade math (12.5% vs. 59.1% statewide) and 4th-grade math (20.8% vs. 67.3%). Nearby schools show what is attainable close by — Innovation Academy West, just 0.16 miles away with a similar small enrollment (131 students), outperformed West Park in nearly every tested grade, and Robinson G Jones Elementary School averaged roughly 70% proficient, above the state average, while serving the same Cleveland Municipal district. Chronic absenteeism is the highest in the neighborhood at 62.6% — roughly 1.8 times the nearby average and far above peers such as Innovation Academy West (24.5%) and Ridge-Brook Elementary School (15.6%) — though it is down from a 77.6% peak in 2021–22.

West Park also reports the lowest per-pupil spending in its comparison group ($7,061 in 2018–19, about 40% below the peer median) and one of the smallest class sizes (13.6 students per teacher). Small classes are not translating into results, which points to attendance and middle-grade math and reading instruction as the most actionable areas. The school appears to have stopped declining and begun a modest recovery, but it remains in the bottom decile statewide.