(Plain Press, October 2019)           This morning (September 12, 2019) Ohio released the 2018‐19 school year report cards, and I am pleased to share with you that CMSD has again made progress on several key measures that CMSD educators have individually and collectively have worked on. Results include:

• An increase of 2.6 percentage points in K‐3 literacy, with 85.3% of last year’s third grade students meeting the third grade guarantee (an increase of 1.4 percentage points over the prior year)
• An increase on the Performance Index for the fourth consecutive year, earning the district a D on that measure
• An increase on our gap closing measure, raising it from an F in 2016‐17, to a D in 17‐18 and to a C in 18‐19
• A 16.1 percentage point increase in English Language Proficiency with 59.5% of our students meeting their 
language acquisition goals
• Another 3.6 percentage point increase in our 4‐year graduation rate, which now stands at 78.2% and marks the 
ninth straight year of improvement (the national average is 84%, so we are quickly closing the gap)
• Graduation rates for Hispanic students and African‐American students of 77% and 79.8% respectively
• A five‐year graduation rate of 81.5%, earning us a D grade on the graduation component of the report card.  
Collectively, this progress has earned the district an overall rating of D, moving us up from last year’s F grade.

LETTER

I have included a link below to our updated Progress Infographic to give you quick access to these and other key improvements we’ve made district‐wide. 
Throughout the day, we will gather information to examine how our progress last year compares to our peers, our region, and our state. This additional information is important, because it can show not only that we are improving, but that in many cases we are improving more quickly than many other school districts in Ohio.

Our continued progress is due in large measure to the extraordinary investment so many of you have made, and continue to make, in Cleveland’s kids and their future.

Please join me in sharing this good news with everyone who needs to know about the progress we continue to make under The Cleveland Plan.  Having met our goal to become a Say Yes to Education city this year, the support services and scholarships it brings will enable us to accelerate these gains.

Eric S. Gordon

Chief Executive Officer

Cleveland Metropolitan School District