Cleveland Metropolitan School District

Central High School opened in 1846. West High School serving Ohio City followed.

After World War II, middle-class jobs and families migrated to the suburbs leaving behind predominantly low-income student enrollment in the Cleveland Public School system.^[18] A long-term decline in population began in 1950. It was exacerbated in the 1960s and early 1970s by white flight and suburbanization. While the city's total population declined, Cleveland Public Schools' enrollment increased from 99,686 in 1950 to 134,765 in 1960 and 148,793 in 1963.^[18] Cleveland Public Schools financially struggled with a declining tax base due to regional industrial decline and depopulation of the metropolitan and urban areas in favor of the suburbs.^[18]

On December 12, 1973, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Cleveland Chapter filed suit, Reed vs. Rhodes,^[19][20] against the Cleveland Board of Education in Cleveland's United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to racially integrate Cleveland Public Schools,^[21] claiming that the public schools were at least partly at fault for Cleveland's housing segregation into ethnic neighborhoods. Between August 31, 1976^[20] and 1984, Chief United States District Judge Frank J. Battisti issued over 4,000 court orders including implementation of forced-busing of Cleveland Public Schools;^[18] the case was appealed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which by 23 Aug. 1979 upheld Battisti's earlier orders,^[19] and was later upheld on appeal by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Many factors resulted in declining enrollments.^[18] Mandatory busing was one of several factors which sped up the migration out of Cleveland. ^{[citation needed]} The administrative and operational expense of complying with mandatory busing and other federal court orders caused a dramatic increase in overhead expenditures per student, while declining tax revenues resulted in lower expenditures on actually educating public school students.^[18]

Before mandatory busing in 1976, minority enrollment in Cleveland Public Schools was 58%; by 1994 it was 71%. By 1996, Cleveland Public Schools' total enrollment was half of what it was pre-mandatory busing.^[22] In 1991, Ohio had a new proficiency test for 9th grade students, which the majority of Cleveland Public Schools students did not pass.^[18] By 1994, almost 50% of the system's students were failing to graduate from high school.^[18] Meanwhile, many graduates did not qualify for entry-level jobs,^[18] with many employers increasingly requiring secondary or post-secondary degrees ^[18] due to more information technology-related jobs and other changes in the overall economy.

In March 1994, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Cleveland Chapter, Reed vs. Rhodes plaintiff, challenged the fairness of the Ohio 9th grade proficiency test as an Ohio secondary school graduation requirement for African-American students;^[23] the subsequent federal court settlement agreement(s) left the 9th grade secondary school graduation requirement intact and unchanged in 1994 and subsequently.^[23] Prior to mandatory busing, Cleveland Public Schools' graduation rate was 75 percent; by 1996 it had dropped to 26.6 percent.^[22] Although mandatory busing ended in the 1990s, Cleveland continued to slide into poverty, reaching a nadir in 2004 when it was named the poorest major city in the United States.^[24] Cleveland was again rated the poorest major city in the U.S. in 2006, with a poverty rate of 32.4%.^[25]

"Growth schools," the highest-rated group, will stay as is while gaining some extra freedom in management. "Refocus schools," are improving and will get added attention—for example, leadership training—to help continue their progress. "Repurpose schools," which face staff changes or conversion to charters to give them a jolt. The remaining schools will close, with students transferred to neighboring facilities unless they take advantage of citywide open enrollment. "Monitor closely schools," are those schools that will not be placed in a group until the 2011–2012 school year.^[26]

Prior to 1998 the school board was elected. Since that time the board has been appointed by the Mayor.

In October 1921, the Cleveland Public School System began its first program for gifted children at Denison Elementary School. Children in grades four, five, and six participated. This program was supported by the Women's City Club of Cleveland. From 1921 to 1927, fourteen elementary and two junior high schools were established as centers for gifted children. In the decades of the 1940s and 1950s, the Cleveland Public Schools developed and articulated a program for gifted pupils from the primary grades through high school. Thus, from a modest beginning, the program, which at one time was called the "greatest experiment in education," has grown and developed into a program that currently^[when?] provides enriching educational experiences for over 2,500 children with high intellectual and/or academic ability.

Total district revenues for the 2011–2012 school year amounted to $630,981,000, with 27% of revenues coming from local funding, 58% from state funding, and 15% derived from federal funding.^[27] This total revenue amounted to $15,464 per pupil. The Ohio Department of Education reports the average teacher salary for the 2012–2013 school year was $69,314, with a median teacher salary of $72,940.^[27]

The Gifted Education Program in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District consists of the 'Major Work' Program, currently in grades 2–8, and the Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) Programs in grades 9–12. There are seven PreK-8 Schools, one Grades 2–12 School, and five Grades 9–12 Schools that service gifted identified children. The AP courses vary amongst high schools.

Entrance into the 'Major Work' Program is based upon a 95 percentile score in the National Range in a major subject area on the Stanford 10 Group Test or the Woodcock-Johnson-III Individual Test. A Full Scale IQ score of 125 or above on the Otis-Lennon Group Test or the WISC-IV Individual Test also qualifies a child for the program.^[28]

^{[when?][citation needed]}

• Benjamin Franklin—2–8
• Garfield—2–8
• O. H. Perry—2–8
• Riverside—2–8
• Wade Park—2–8
• Whitney Young—2–8

^{[when?][citation needed]}

Gifted coded students feed into these high schools unless they apply to another special program or thematic school:

• Collinwood
• East Tech
• Glenville
• James F. Rhodes
• John Marshall
• Whitney Young

Courses vary from school to school:

• Carl Shuler
• Cleveland School of Arts
• Cleveland School of Architecture and Design, John Hay Campus
• Cleveland School of Science and Medicine, John Hay Campus
• Collinwood
• Early College, John Hay Campus
• East Tech
• Garrett Morgan School of Science
• Ginn Academy
• Glenville
• James F. Rhodes
• John Marshall
• Lincoln West
• South
• Whitney Young
  • Note Whitney Young has grades 2–12

The district requires all kindergarten through 8th grade student to wear school uniforms; this rule began in 2008. High schoolers are required to adhere to a strict dress code.^[29] In February 2009 the school board voted in favor of a rule stating that high schoolers need to wear uniforms.^[30]

In early 2009, Ohio Department of Education announced its new high school graduation requirements that would take effect starting with students entering ninth grade in 2010 (Class of 2014). Under these requirements, students must take an additional year of mathematics, more business/ career tech class and fewer electives.^{[citation needed]}

• List of school districts in Ohio

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

• Official website
• Early History of the Cleveland Public Schools – Digitized book. From description at the site: "Published by order of the Board of Education in 1876. The author established the first free high school in Ohio in 1846, which became Central High School. This work is a continuous narrative without chapter divisions. It includes information on individual schools and a list of school board members from 1836–1866."
• Central High School Yearbooks - digitized yearbooks dating to the early to mid-1900s (various years)
• Central High School newsletters and annuals - digitized periodicals from the early 1900s