Marion-Franklin High School

Marion-Franklin High School is a traditional neighborhood public high school at 1265 Koebel Rd in Columbus, Ohio, serving roughly 430 students in grades 9–12 as part of Columbus City Schools District, a district ranked near the bottom of Ohio's 773 districts.

The single most distinctive number here is attendance: 81.9% of Marion-Franklin students were chronically absent in 2025-26, compared with 53.8% district-wide, and that gap has widened since 2022-23. Still, it is not the highest among nearby urban high schools — East High School sits at 85.8% and Columbus Scioto 6-12 at 80.1%, while Hamilton Township High School in a neighboring district is far lower at 43.5%. On academics, 2025-26 brought a broad one-year jump: five of six end-of-course subjects gained roughly 10–22 points, with Biology rising from 17.9% to 40.0% and Algebra I from 13.0% to 24.2%. Math remains the deepest weakness — Algebra I proficiency of 24.2% is 37.4 points below the state rate — but the school does beat its own district in Biology and Geometry.

The graduation rate of 75.5% trails the district's 81.5%, yet it ranks third among eight comparable nearby high schools, ahead of East High (71.7%), Columbus Scioto (66.7%), The Academy for Urban Scholars (63.7%), Early College Academy (43.8%), Focus Learning Academy of Southwestern Columbus (31.7%), and Mason Run High School (30.6%). Students receiving special education services improved from the 2nd to the 26th percentile in two years — the strongest positive trend in the data. In short: persistent low rankings, real academic momentum, and attendance as the biggest lever.