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 2008-09 Ohio Report Card, based on the district's steady academic achievement. CPS has been in Continuous Improvement — the report card's middle category — for five 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.
In August 2009, the new John P. Parker School opened.
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.