Summary:
ZIP code 44708 in Canton, Ohio is home to four schools serving roughly 2,976 students across grades K–12, split between two very different districts: Canton City (three schools, about 91% of local students) and Plain Local (one school).
Avondale Elementary School is the clear standout, beating the state in every tested subject in both years — including 4th-grade math at 90.2% proficient, 22.9 points above the state — while posting the lowest chronic absenteeism in the area at 7.2%, less than half its own district's rate of 15.2%. McKinley High School is by far the largest school, with 2,047 students (69% of the total), and its strongest signal is an 80.9% graduation rate — 11.3 points above the Canton City rate of 69.6%. However, every End-of-Course exam trails the state, and chronic absenteeism is 48.9%, meaning nearly one in two students is chronically absent. Clarendon Intermediate School shows a bright spot in 4th-grade math at 50.7% (14.1 points above district), but 5th-grade science sits at 14.9% versus the state's 62.7% — the widest gap in this data. Harter Elementary School is the most stagnant, trailing its own district in every reported subject.
Two patterns stand out for families. First, absenteeism rises steadily with grade level within Canton City — Harter 27.2%, Clarendon 33.2%, McKinley 48.9% — while Avondale breaks the pattern entirely. Second, spending and class size do not track results: Avondale spends the least per student ($9,326) and has the largest classes (19.8 per teacher), yet posts the highest proficiency. Improvement is real but uneven — Clarendon gained the most year over year (+6.4 points on average), McKinley improved in 5 of 6 subjects, and Harter stayed flat.
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