Dayton Public Schools held steady at two out of five stars on Ohio's newly released 2025-26 school report card, matching the district's rating from the previous year even as graduation and attendance numbers remain far below the state average. The district's overall performance index sat at 50.3, barely moved from 50.4 the year before, while Ohio districts statewide averaged 82.8 and an overall rating of 3.8 stars.
The numbers, first reported by Cleveland.com, show a district still wrestling with the same challenges that have defined its report cards for years: low graduation rates, persistent absenteeism, and struggling early reading scores. Dayton's graduation rate came in at 69.5%, compared to a statewide average of 96.1%, with more than a third of Ohio districts posting graduation rates of 98% or higher. That gap earned Dayton just one star on the graduation component of its report card.
Ohio's star system, which replaced the state's old A-F letter grades, runs from 1 to 5 stars in half-star increments. Under the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce's own framework, a rating of 3 stars means a district is meeting state standards, while 1 or 2 stars signal that a district needs support or significant support to get there. Dayton's overall rating is built from six weighted components — achievement and progress each count for 25%, while early literacy, gap closing, graduation, and college, career, workforce and military readiness each make up 12.5%, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
Where Dayton Fell Short
Dayton received two stars on achievement, two stars on progress, two stars on college, career, workforce and military readiness, one star on gap closing, and one star on early literacy. The gap closing component measures district performance across English language arts, math, graduation, English learner language proficiency, chronic absenteeism, and gifted student services, per the same report reviewed by Cleveland.com.
Reading and math proficiency figures illustrate the scale of the challenge. Dayton third-graders scored proficient or better on English language arts tests just 38.1% of the time, and by eighth grade, only 20.6% hit proficiency on English language arts, 10.7% on math, and 19.1% on science — each figure representing the share of students scoring proficient or better on that test.
Chronic absenteeism remains one of Dayton's steepest hurdles. The district's rate stood at 43.8%, based on 12,790 students, compared to a statewide rate of 23.9%. Ohio defines chronic absenteeism as a student missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason, a threshold that folds in excused absences, unexcused absences, suspensions, and even medically excused absences. Under House Bill 96, enacted in 2025, the state now counts roughly 18 missed days a year — for any reason — toward that threshold, a legislative shift described by edCircuit, which also requires districts to notify parents once a student hits 5% of missed hours.
A Bright Spot In Career and Technical Education
Dayton's Career-Technical Education program stood out as a rare high point on an otherwise sobering report card, earning an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars, including 5 stars in career and postsecondary readiness and 4 stars in graduation and post-program outcomes, according to Dayton Public Schools. Superintendent Dr. David Lawrence pointed to the district's expansion of career pathways across all of its high schools and the introduction of career exploration programming at the middle school level as drivers of that result.
Lawrence was named permanent superintendent in February 2024 after serving as interim leader since July 2023, and he has steered the district's Academic Action Plan, which centers on early literacy, high school readiness, and career pathways. He has also previously raised concerns over proposed state legislation that would force closures of low-performing schools, the district's Academic Action Plan notes.
Why Early Literacy Ratings Dipped Statewide
Part of what kept Dayton's early literacy rating at one star this year traces back to a statewide calculation change. For the 2025-26 school year, Ohio began evaluating fourth-grade promotion strictly on reading test scores rather than allowing the parent-approved exemptions that had previously pushed reported promotion rates close to 100% across many districts, a shift Hoodline detailed in its report card preview. Early literacy tracks reading improvement and proficiency for students from kindergarten through third grade, while achievement evaluates whether student performance on state tests meets established thresholds and progress uses statistical analysis to measure academic growth of student groups year over year.
Dayton's struggles are not unique among Ohio's urban districts. Nearly 10% of Ohio school districts received 2 or 2.5 stars requiring state support this year, a group that includes Columbus City Schools, Toledo Public Schools, Cincinnati Public Schools, and Cleveland Municipal School District, according to The Review. Meanwhile, suburban Montgomery County districts just outside Dayton tell a different story — Oakwood City Schools and Centerville City Schools both earned top overall ratings of 5 out of 5 stars, per WHIO-TV.
The District's Demographics and Trajectory
Dayton Public Schools serves roughly 12,771 students across 28 schools, with 98.9% classified as economically disadvantaged and 61.4% identifying as Black, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. That level of economic disadvantage correlates strongly statewide with performance index and attendance outcomes, the state's data shows.
The district has now held an overall 2-star rating for three consecutive school years, a stretch that followed years of climbing out of 1-star ratings and lower performance levels, according to figures shared by the district. It marked the first time in nearly two decades that Dayton achieved a 2-star rating specifically in the achievement component. Whether expanded career pathways and new absence-intervention efforts can eventually lift early literacy and chronic absenteeism figures remains an open question heading into future school years.
