Best High Schools in Zip Code 43402

ZIP code 43402 in Bowling Green, Ohio is home to two public high schools serving grades 9–12 — Bowling Green High School (799 students, in Bowling Green City School District) and Otsego High School (474 students, in Otsego Local) — for a combined enrollment of 1,273 students.

Both schools score well above the Ohio average, with graduation rates of 97–98% and 3- to 4-star ratings, but they get there differently. Otsego is the performance standout: it ranked 148th of 855 Ohio high schools (83rd percentile) in 2024–25 and beat the state average in all 12 subject-year combinations available, with its best results in American History (90.8%) and American Government (90.3%). Across two years, Otsego's average proficiency is about 5 points higher than Bowling Green's (76.3 vs. 71.2). Otsego also has the higher graduation rate (98.4% vs. 97.1%) and lower chronic absenteeism (13.3% vs. 16.2%), despite a free/reduced lunch rate of 56.96% — nearly double Bowling Green's 31.41%. It spends $11,117 per student versus $9,180, though that figure is from 2018–19.

Bowling Green High School is the improvement story, climbing from the 54th to the 66th percentile over three ranked years, with its strongest edge in English II — up 6.4 points in a single year and 17.4 points above the state. Its weakness is math: Geometry (46.0) and Algebra I (62.3) sit only slightly above — and in 2024–25, slightly below — state averages. Geometry is the lowest-scoring subject at both schools in both years. Parents should also note that in math, district-level figures are higher than the high school's own scores, likely because middle-school students take those tests. At both schools, absenteeism runs higher than in the surrounding district, meaning the high school building is where the issue concentrates.