BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio — Half of Butler County’s school districts dropped in their overall rating by the state’s annual report card released Monday.
And graduation rates declined for seven local school systems.
Overall, report card results for local districts were mixed, with some school systems showing relatively slight declines or gains in a variety of key measurements by state education officials.
According to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW), five of the county’s 10 public school systems showed a decline in the state’s five-star ranking for the 2024-2025 school year.
Those districts falling according to the five-star measurement were: Hamilton, Fairfield, Middletown, Ross and Talawanda.
None of the 10 districts improved in that category, with Lakota, Monroe, Edgewood, Madison and New Miami repeating their previous star rating.
According to the state’s measurement of four-year graduation rates, seven of the 10 local districts saw a reduced rate for the 2024-2025 school year, with Middletown Schools continuing its trend of recent years with the lowest percentage of graduation at 83.8% down from the 2023-2024 school year’s rate of 85.8%.
Lakota and Ross Schools continued their trends of recent years of being among the county’s highest overall rated districts, this time around each earning a 4.5-star rating, though Ross had previously earned a 5-star rating for the 2023-2024 school year.
Fairfield Schools, the second largest district locally after Lakota, showed a slight increase in performance index rating from 77.2% the previous school year to 77.8% in 2024-2025.
Though the 10,000-student district fell from a four-star rating to 3.5, the leader of Fairfield Schools said the decline came from a slight decline in the state’s key measurements.
“We are proud to share that the Fairfield City School District has earned a 3.5-star rating on its latest report card released by the state of Ohio,” said Billy Smith, superintendent of Fairfield Schools.
“This rating reflects that we are meeting expectations and just a fraction away from exceeding them, having missed a 4-star rating by just 0.03 points,” said Smith.
Mandy Aug, director of Fairfield Schools’ curriculum and instruction, said this report included a first for one of the school system’s buildings.
“The district met or exceeded state expectations in five of the six report card components, earning strong ratings in progress (4 stars), graduation (4 stars), achievement (3 stars), early literacy (3 stars), and gap closing (3 stars),” said Aug.
“And we are also very excited to celebrate North Elementary for earning a 5-star overall rating — the first 5-star rating in the district.”
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce uses multiple data points from public schools to determine the districts’ ratings. The five categories that go into the overall rating are achievement, gap closing, early literacy, graduation and progress.
Achievement and progress are most heavily weighted into the equation. Achievement includes how students did on state testing, and progress is the statistical analysis used to measure academic growth of students from year to year, according to ODEW.
While five stars is the best a district can do, a district “meeting expectations” is a 3.5-3 star district. Below that rating, districts are considered to need state support to meet their goals.
Statewide, math scores are increasing, according to a report from ODEW released alongside the state report cards. The state noted chronic absenteeism, or the rate at which students are missing school, is also down compared to previous years.
However, reading scores appeared to have leveled off, with 60.4% of all Ohio students labeled as proficient in English Language arts, down from 60.9% last school year.
“Progress rarely occurs in a straight line,” said Ohio Department of Education and Workforce director Steve Dackin in a press release Monday. “As new initiatives take root, some measures may level off before advancing. But the data shows encouraging trends, and Ohio remains committed to using this information to guide decisions that put students first.”
Hamilton Schools saw a drop from 3.5 stars to 3 for the last school year but earned an increase in its performance rating up from 70.3% to 70.9%.
Superintendent Andrea Blevins, who took over leadership of Hamilton Schools this summer, said “although the overall state report card rating shifted from 3.5 to 3 stars, our Performance Index improved, and our growth remains a clear strength.”
“The district was only tenths of a point away from a 3.5 rating, a 4 in Gap Closing, and we are working to fully understand and address the new College, Career, Workforce, and Military Readiness measure,” said Blevins.
The county’s largest district, Lakota Schools, maintained its 4.5-star rating — tied with Ross for highest locally — and saw its performance rating improve from 86.6% to 87.6%.
“Lakota’s report remained strong for the 2024-2025 school year, earning 4.5 out of 5 stars for the district,” said Lakota Schools Superintendent Ashley Whitely.
“Our achievement and progress scores remained steady at 4 of 5 stars and gap closing earning 5 of 5. This is consistent with last year’s results when Lakota jumped from 3.5 to 4.5 stars. The 2024-2025 school year was the first year for our new math and English language arts curriculum and we are pleased with the impact it is having in our classrooms,” said Whitely.
“While not a surprise, we are excited to see the number of schools earning 4 stars and above, with Independence and VanGorden elementaries increasing to five overall stars this year. Additionally, VanGorden has steadily increased its progress scores over the past two years, moving from three stars in 2022-2023 to five stars for the 2024-2025 school year.”
