Best High Schools in Zip Code 45502

ZIP code 45502 in Springfield, Ohio, contains two public high schools: Northwestern Junior/Senior High School, serving grades 7–12 with 731 students, and Shawnee High School, serving grades 9–12 with 667 students. Together they enroll 1,398 students, and they belong to two different districts, Northwestern Local and Clark-Shawnee Local.

Shawnee is the higher-ranked school. Its district, Clark-Shawnee Local, ranks 266 of 773 districts statewide (66th percentile, 3 stars), while Northwestern Local ranks 432 of 773 (44th percentile, 2 stars). Shawnee's own 2025–26 school rank is 262 of 795 (67th percentile, 3 stars), ahead of Northwestern's 341 of 795 (57th percentile, 3 stars). Shawnee also has a slightly higher graduation rate (96.0% vs. 95.3%), lower chronic absenteeism (17.4% vs. 18.5%), a smaller student-teacher ratio (16.2 vs. 20.3), and higher per-student spending ($10,911 vs. $8,825, though that figure is from 2018–19). Notably, Shawnee serves more students from low-income families (51.57% free/reduced lunch vs. 38.99%) yet still posts stronger results in American History (83.3% vs. 73.5%) and Biology (81.5% vs. 74.8%).

Northwestern's clearest strengths are American Government, where it scores 80.0% versus Shawnee's 74.2%, and Algebra I, where it leads 70.2% to 56.7% — Shawnee's Algebra I result falls below the state's 61.6% and dropped from 75.0% the year before. Northwestern's rank has also been steady (57th, 56th and 57th percentile over three years), and its high school outperforms its own district, while Shawnee's high school roughly matches its district. Shawnee's ranking has slipped, though, from 78th percentile and 4 stars in 2024–25 to 67th percentile and 3 stars in 2025–26. Northwestern's weak spot is middle school: 7th-grade math proficiency is 31.7% against a state figure of 48.6%, and 8th-grade English Language Arts is 49.6% against 58.3%. Shawnee's record also lists 7th- and 8th-grade exams even though it is listed as grades 9–12, so those middle-grade results should be viewed cautiously.