Summary:
Zip code 43158, serving the rural community of Union Furnace, Ohio, contains a single school: Union Furnace Elementary School, a small Pre-K through 4th grade school with 184 students that is part of the Logan-Hocking Local School District.
Union Furnace Elementary School is a standout academic performer, earning a 5-star rating from SchoolDigger for three consecutive years and ranking in the 97th percentile of all Ohio elementary schools for the 2024-2025 school year. This places it among the top 3% of schools statewide. Its test scores far exceed both district and state averages: in 3rd grade English Language Arts, 97.1% of students are proficient compared to the state average of 61.3%, and in 4th grade math, 88.9% are proficient versus the state average of 69.1%. The school also benefits from a favorable student-teacher ratio of 12.8:1, allowing for more individualized attention.
An interesting finding is the school's high chronic absenteeism rate of 26.3%, which is slightly above the district average. Despite this challenge, the school achieves elite academic results, suggesting that instruction when students are present is exceptionally effective. The school's per-student spending of $7,567 indicates efficient use of resources to produce outsized outcomes. The most striking takeaway is the "ELA advantage," where the school's English Language Arts proficiency rates are dramatically higher than state averages, pointing to a particularly strong literacy program. This raises the compelling question of what this already top-performing school could achieve if it could reduce its absenteeism rate.
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