Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS), with 58 schools spread around a 90-square-mile district, is moving forward strongly on two fronts: Raising student achievement inside the classroom while rebuilding and renovating its school buildings into modern 21st-century learning environments.
As Ohio's third-largest public-school district and Hamilton County's largest, CPS has demonstrated continuous improvement over recent years in overall district performance, reading and math scores, graduation rate, student attendance and high-school academic performance.
Cincinnati Public Schools serves about 34,680 students in preschool through 12th grade. Students may select from a variety of educational programs, including 16 high schools with specific focuses; 19 magnet elementary schools offering programs such as the arts, foreign language, and Montessori and Paideia teaching styles; plus a strong selection of neighborhood elementary schools.
CPS earned the Continuous Improvement rating on the 2007-08 Ohio Report Card, based on the district's steady academic achievement. CPS has been in Continuous Improvement — the report card's middle category — for four years in a row.
CPS' administration credited recent Report Card gains to the hard work of students, teachers, administrators and parents. Three major components are leading the district's improvement: aligning curriculum and teaching with state academic standards, frequently monitoring student progress toward the standards, and intervening quickly with targeted help for struggling students.
During the 2008-09 school year, CPS welcomed students into several new or fully renovated buildings — the new Carson School in Price Hill, the new Fairview-Clifton German Language School in Clifton, the new Pleasant Ridge Montessori School in Pleasant Ridge, the new South Avondale School in Avondale, and the new Covedale School in Covedale; and the renovated and expanded Kilgour School in Mt. Lookout, and the renovated Roselawn Condon School in Roselawn.
Currently, more than a dozen sites are under construction — including new buildings and full renovations — within the district's ten-year $1-billion Facilities Master Plan, which launched in 2002. CPS is building modern schools for all Cincinnati Public Schools' students.