Buckeye Local High School

Buckeye Local High School is a small rural public high school at 10692 State Route 150 in Rayland, Ohio, serving grades 9–12 with 359 students — roughly 90 per grade level — as the only high school in the Buckeye Local school district in eastern Jefferson County. In 2025–26 it ranked 660th of 795 Ohio high schools (17th percentile, one star), the lowest of the eight comparable nearby high schools and its weakest showing in more than a decade.

The most striking number is attendance: 52.1% of students were chronically absent in 2025–26, meaning more than half missed enough school to be flagged. That is nearly 10 points above the next-highest nearby school (The Bridgeport School District - High School at 36.0%) and roughly five times the rate at Steubenville High School (10.8%). The trend is worsening, rising from 46.1% two years earlier. Test scores land at the bottom of the local field: across six end-of-course exams the school averages about 46% proficient against a state average of about 63%. Algebra I (29.6% proficient) is 32 points below the state — the largest single gap — and English II (43.8%) has slipped for three straight years.

There are real bright spots. The graduation rate is 95.5%, up from 87.9% three years earlier, and higher than Martins Ferry High School (93.5%), Bellaire High School (93.3%), and Indian Creek High School (93.1%). Algebra I has climbed from 12.3% to about 30% since 2022–23. Class sizes are small (13 students per teacher) and per-pupil spending ($9,307 in 2018–19) exceeds that of higher-ranked neighbors such as Steubenville and St Clairsville High School, so money and staffing are not the obvious constraint. Notably, the high school ranks well below its own district (17th vs. 34th percentile), suggesting the challenge is concentrated at the high school level rather than shared community-wide.