Summary
Buhrer is a PK–8 school at 1600 Buhrer Avenue on Cleveland’s near west side, serving 424 students in the Cleveland Municipal School District. It is one of the larger elementary/middle schools in its immediate area. In 2025–2026 it ranked 1,008th of 1,560 Ohio schools (35th percentile, 2 stars), while the district ranked 689th of 773. That makes Buhrer one of the stronger performers inside one of the state’s weakest districts. Its trend climbed from the 23rd–31st percentile before the pandemic to a peak of 47th percentile in 2024–25, then slipped back to 35th percentile.
Its most striking strength is attendance: chronic absenteeism is 27.1%, less than half the district’s 54.3% and lower than every same-district peer, including Denison, Paul L Dunbar Elementary School, Scranton School, Tremont Montessori School, Orchard School, and Luis Munoz Marin School. Menlo Park Academy, a gifted-focused charter, has a lower rate (17.1%) but a different intake. Academically, Buhrer’s average grade-level proficiency is about 56%, versus about 31% for Cleveland Municipal and about 60% statewide. Upper grades are strong—8th grade math 80%, 7th grade math 60.7%, 6th grade math 60%, and 6th grade ELA 62.8%, all above state averages. Third grade is the soft spot: math 39.1% and ELA 34.8%, both far below state and the only reported metric below the district; third-grade ELA has declined for three years.
For English-language learners and low-income students, Buhrer’s 2024–25 results ranked well above its overall position (68th and 66th percentile), the strongest evidence its instructional model works. Special education students ranked at the 10th percentile in 2025–26 (1 star), and gifted students ranked at the 6th and 9th percentile in older data—areas to watch. Buhrer spent $12,940 per student in 2018–19, more than most same-district peers and far more than nearby charters, though Menlo Park spends about $4,000 less. Bottom line: Buhrer is stable, outperforms its district and nearby district-run peers, and gets students to school reliably. Its concentrated weaknesses are third-grade literacy and math, special education, and gifted programming, and the recent dip is worth monitoring.
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