BBH schools earn third consecutive five-star state report card

Sept. 16 school board meeting

by Melissa Martin

Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District once again earned an overall rating of five stars from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce on its 2025-2026 state-issued report card.

An overall five-star rating is the highest possible rating a district can receive on the report cards, which means the district is significantly exceeding state standards in nearly all categories.

The state report cards analyze school district performance in six areas: achievement, progress, early literacy, gap closing, graduation and college, career, workforce and military readiness. Starting with the 2025-2026 school year, the new component measures how well the graduating class is prepared for postsecondary education, entering the workforce or joining the armed forces.

According to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, more than 90% of districts statewide earned overall ratings of three stars or higher on this year’s report cards, released Sept. 15, which means they met or exceeded state expectations for performance. Also noteworthy is that this marks the third consecutive year of declining chronic absenteeism, which district officials say has reached its lowest mark since before the COVID pandemic.

The Ohio DEW also said math achievement reached its highest level statewide in five years, with proficiency showing improvement in nearly all grade levels. Proficiency in algebra and geometry also improved.

As for English language arts, proficiency dipped slightly; however, the Performance Index on Ohio’s State Tests in English language arts reached a five-year high.

In the BBH City School District, Superintendent Jeffrey Harrison said the district’s total performance index score rose to 107.074, out of a maximum of 110.24 in the 2025-2026 school year. That number is up from 106.44, out of a maximum of 109.82, in the 2024-2025 school year.

Harrison said this is the highest score the district has received for this metric, which measures the achievement level of all 3,518 students, not just those scoring proficient or above, since before the pandemic.

He also noted the district’s performance index percentage rose to 97.1%, up from 96.9% in the 2024-2025 school year, demonstrating “continued growth toward maximum potential student mastery.”

The statewide average was 82.8%, Harrison said.

“Our overall performance index greatly exceeds statewide standards and keeps the BBHCSD in a class of its own,” Harrison said.

David Martin, the district’s director of curriculum and instruction, broke down the specifics of this year’s report card for the BBH Board of Education, noting that BBH High School received a rating of five stars in all components, except in the newest category of college, career, workforce and military readiness, in which it earned four stars for the second year in a row.

Martin said BBH Elementary earned an overall rating of five stars for the 2025-2026 school year, receiving five stars in the categories of achievement, gap closing and early literacy, and four stars in the progress component. The same is true for BBH Middle School this year. With an overall rating of five stars this year, the school also scored five stars in all components, except for progress, in which it received four stars.

Martin also noted that students not only achieved the highest growth expected in math and science across all grades, but the school district also moved up in state rankings thanks to its scores, from No. 22 to No. 21 in 2026. He also said BBHHS is among the top 10 high schools in Ohio based on its performance index score, moving into the No. 10 spot.

“We have a lot to celebrate,” Martin said. “We’re going seeing some metrics that we haven’t seen since pre-pandemic days, and we’ve definitely improved. … We are very confident that student learning has occurred at a very high degree.”