Best Public Schools in Zip Code 44142

ZIP code 44142 covers Brook Park, Ohio, and contains just one public school: Brook Park Elementary School, a large PK–4 elementary with 919 students in the Berea City district. There are no middle or high schools in this ZIP code, so families here feed into other buildings after 4th grade. Because there is only one school, there is no in-area comparison to make; the useful benchmarks are how the school stacks up against its district and against Ohio as a whole.

The headline for parents is clear one-year improvement. Brook Park Elementary School rose from 2 stars to 3 stars and moved from the 42nd to the 53rd percentile among Ohio schools, climbing 177 rank positions between 2024–25 and 2025–26. On a simple average of its four tested subjects, the school scored about 67.3% proficient in 2025–26 versus roughly 63.7% statewide, so it now performs above the Ohio average overall. It beat the state in 3rd grade ELA (71.2% vs. 63.4%), 4th grade math (71.1% vs. 67.3%), and 3rd grade math (65.5% vs. 62.1%). The exception was 4th grade ELA at 61.4%, just under the state's 61.8%. The biggest gains came in 4th grade math (up 7.7 points) and 3rd grade ELA (up 9.0 points).

The catch is that Brook Park Elementary School still trails its own district, Berea City, in all four tests — most notably 4th grade ELA, which is 10.1 points below the district. That district ranks 306 of 773, at the 60th percentile with 3 stars, so it sets a high bar. Chronic absenteeism is a positive note: 20.5% at the school versus 23.1% districtwide, though roughly one in five students still misses enough school to be chronically absent. Other context is limited — free/reduced lunch is not reported, per-student spending ($9,751) dates to 2018–19, and the 2024–25 student-teacher ratio is 20.5:1.