Olentangy Shanahan Middle School

Olentangy Shanahan Middle School is a public middle school serving grades 6–8 with 1,029 students in Lewis Center, Ohio, part of the Olentangy Local district, which ranks 57th of 773 Ohio districts. The school itself ranks 59th of 1,046 middle schools statewide — the 94th percentile — and has earned 5 stars every year on record, from 2015–2016 through 2025–2026, never finishing below the 94th percentile or above the 98th.

Within its own district, Shanahan is 5th of six Olentangy middle schools, trailing Olentangy Liberty Middle School (11th), Olentangy Berlin Middle School (37th), Hyatts Middle School (47th) and Berkshire Middle School (51st), but ahead of Olentangy Orange Middle School (129th). Even so, it outperforms nearly every nearby school outside the district except Phoenix Middle School (90th percentile). Grade-level proficiency ranges from 71.3% to 88.7%, roughly 19 to 36 points above state averages. End-of-course math is a standout: 100% proficient in Geometry (state 43.3%) and 98.3% in Algebra I (state 61.6%), stable for four straight years.

Two things to watch: chronic absenteeism is 13.2% against 9.2% district-wide — the highest of any Olentangy middle school and more than double Liberty's 5.9% — and the free/reduced-price lunch share roughly doubled, from 6.48% in 2022–2023 to 13.9% in 2024–2025. Class size has also grown to 20.9 students per teacher, second-largest in the Olentangy group. Students from low-income families now rank at the 80th percentile, down from 88th in each of the two prior years, and 8th-grade math (71.3%) reads lower than it looks because the strongest 8th-grade mathematicians take the Algebra I and Geometry end-of-course exams instead. Whether these pressures begin to register in achievement next year is the key thing to monitor.