Withrow University High School

Withrow University High School is a grades 9–12 comprehensive neighborhood high school serving roughly 1,300 students on Madison Road in Cincinnati, part of Cincinnati Public Schools. It is the largest non-selective high school in its peer group, and it sits within about four miles of both the state's top-ranked high school, Walnut Hills High School, and some of Ohio's lowest-ranked schools.

The school is in a genuine turnaround. Its statewide percentile rose from a decade-long plateau of 7–11 to 14, 17 and 16 over the last three years, and all six tested End-of-Course subjects improved across three years, with the six-subject average roughly doubling from about 20% to 44%. Geometry is the standout: 43.7% proficient, level with the state and the best among Cincinnati Public Schools' comprehensive high schools, ahead of Hughes STEM High School (21.7), Woodward Career Technical High School (16.7) and Riverview East Academy (4.8). Graduation recovered from 68.4% to 84.7%, above the district's 80.6%. Special education students rank at the 80th percentile with 4 stars — the school's strongest measure — achieved on the second-lowest per-pupil funding in the group ($9,281, about $2,700 less than Hughes STEM High School).

Two concerns stand out. Chronic absenteeism is 79.1% — roughly four in five students — about 35 points above the district and more than five times Clark Montessori High School (22.2%) or Walnut Hills High School (14.5%), and it has worsened three years running while the district improved. Gifted and talented students rank in the 1st percentile (279 of 283), the lowest measure in the dataset. Middle-grade results reported under the same campus are also far lower than the high school's, which could pressure future gains. Nearby non-CPS schools such as Norwood High School and St Bernard-Elmwood Place Junior/Senior High School show what comparable-size area districts achieve.