Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) — now rated as an Effective school district by the Ohio Department of Education — is moving forward strongly on two fronts: Raising student achievement inside the classrooms while rebuilding and fully renovating its buildings into modern 21st century learning environments.
With 57 schools spread around a 90-square-mile district, CPS is Hamilton County's largest public school district and Ohio's third largest. It serves about 34,600 students in preschool through 12th grade.
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Cincinnati Public Schools moved up into the Effective rating on the 2009-10 Ohio Report Card — the first urban school district in Ohio to reach the Effective category.
CPS earned the Effective rating after five straight years in the middle Continuous Improvement category. (Schools districts must show steady improvement while in the Continuous Improvement category, or the district will drop into a lower category.)
CPS' Effective rating was achieved based on growth on the state's value-added measure. which looks at whether a district provides students with more than a year's worth of expected learning progress for two years in a row.
In addition, CPS met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for seven of the district's eight student subgroups. CPS also met 7 indicators, the highest number among Ohio's eight urban districts: Reading and Writing for 10th-graders, Ohio Graduation Test (OGT); Reading, Mathematics, Writing and Social Studies for 11th-graders, OGT; and student attendance.
And, a third of the district's 57 schools moved up one or two report card categories, resulting in more schools landing in the higher categories and fewer in the lowest.
CPS is in year eight of a 10-year $1-billion Facilities Master Plan, which is providing new or fully renovated buildings for all CPS students.
Opening August 2010:
Opening October 2010:
Opening March 2011: