Cleveland Metropolitan School District, formerly the Cleveland Municipal School District, is a public school district in the U.S. state of Ohio that serves almost all of the city of Cleveland."Shaker Heights City School District." The Plain Dealer. Sunday April 25, 2010. Retrieved on November 21, 2011. "All of the city of Shaker Heights plus about 1 square mile of Cleveland around Shaker Square. H. The Cleveland portion has been part of the Shaker school district since the 1920s. Its residents pay the same school taxes as Shaker Heights residents and are entitled to use the schools and to vote in school elections." The district covers 79 square miles. The Cleveland district is the third largest PreK-12 district in the state, with a 2017–2018 enrollment of about 38,949. CMSD has 68 schools that are for kindergarten to eighth grade students and 39 schools for high school aged students.

In 2005 and in years following, the system faced large budget shortfalls and repeated possibility of slipping back into "academic emergency" as rated by the Ohio Department of Education. The mayor was given control of the city schools after a series of elected school boards were deemed ineffective by city voters. The school board appoints a chief executive officer, the equivalent of a district superintendent, who is responsible for district management. CMSD is the only district in Ohio that is under direct control of the mayor, who appoints a school board. The former chairman of the Board of Education, Robert M. Heard Sr., was appointed July 1, 2007 by Mayor Frank G. Jackson, and CEO's appointed included Barbara Byrd Bennett and Eugene Sanders. In response to declining enrollment over more than a decade and the corresponding growth in charter schools in the city, the District took several steps to improve academic performance and increase graduation rates. In the 2007–08 school year, the District changed its name to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to attract students throughout the region..

The district has seen the graduation rate improve 22.4 percent since 2010. The 4-year graduation rate for students who entered the 9th grade in 2014 and graduated by 2017 was 74.6 percent. The 5-year graduation rate for students who entered the 9th grade in 2013 and graduated by 2017 was 79.6 percent. CMSD reports that the 4-year graduation rate for the class of 2018 was 74.6 percent.

In 2011, Board of Education Chair Denise Link, led the board in its current transformation efforts, including the appointment of Eric S. Gordon as chief executive officer. In 2012, collaboration with the community and Cleveland Teachers Union, the district designed "Cleveland's Plan for Transforming Schools" also referred to as "The Cleveland Plan." The purpose of the Cleveland Plan was to remove legislative barriers to school reform in Cleveland and to implement a portfolio strategy to: Grow the number of high-performing CMSD and charter schools in Cleveland and close and replace failing schools; Focus CMSD's central office on key support and governance roles and transfer authority and resources to schools; Invest and phase in high-leverage system reforms across all schools from preschool to college and career; and Create the Cleveland Transformation Alliance to ensure accountability for all public schools in the city. This included major changes in the District's contract with the Cleveland Teachers Union. House Bill 525 was then created and passed with a bipartisan vote of 27-4, to support the districts most aggressive reform strategies in history. Working closely with Mayor Frank G. Jackson and a coalition of concerned citizens throughout the city, Link and Gordon additionally led the district to passage of CMSD's first operating levy, Issue 107, in 16 years in November, 2012. The District moved its central office in 2013 to its current location at 1111 Superior Ave. E, Cleveland, Ohio 44114.

In 2013, Board Chair Denise L. Link won the Green-Garner "Top Urban Educator" Award, the highest honor given by the Council of the Great City Schools for significant contributions to urban schools and students. CEO Eric Gordon was a national finalist for the same award in 2012. In 2016, Eric Gordon won the "Urban Educator of the Year Award from the Council of Great City Schools.

History 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. 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. 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.

On December 12, 1973, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Cleveland Chapter filed suit, Reed v. Rhodes, 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, claiming that the public schools were at least partly at fault for Cleveland's housing segregation into ethnic neighborhoods. Between August 31, 1976 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; the case was appealed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which by 23 Aug. 1979 upheld Battisti's earlier orders, and was later upheld on appeal by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Many factors resulted in declining enrollments. Mandatory busing was one of several factors which sped up the migration out of Cleveland. 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.

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. In 1991, Ohio had a new proficiency test for 9th grade students, which the majority of Cleveland Public Schools students did not pass. By 1994, almost 50% of the system's students were failing to graduate from high school. Meanwhile, many graduates did not qualify for entry-level jobs, with many employers increasingly requiring secondary or post-secondary degrees 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 v. Rhodes plaintiff, challenged the fairness of the Ohio 9th grade proficiency test as an Ohio secondary school graduation requirement for African-American students; the subsequent federal court settlement agreement(s) left the 9th grade secondary school graduation requirement intact and unchanged in 1994 and subsequently. Prior to mandatory busing, Cleveland Public Schools' graduation rate was 75 percent; by 1996 it had dropped to 26.6 percent. 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.The Associated Press. "Cleveland rated poorest big city in U.S." September 23, 2004. Retrieved from NBC News on 2007-08-01. Cleveland was again rated the poorest major city in the U.S. in 2006, with a poverty rate of 32.4%.Diane Suchetka and Barb Galbincea. "Cleveland Rated Poorest City for Second Time". The Plain Dealer. (2006-08-30) Available at . Retrieved on 2007-08-01.

Schools

Elementary & K-8 schools School name Lowest Grade Highest Grade Category Douglas MacArthur Girls Leadership Academy Pre-Kindergarten 3Growth Valley View Boys Leadership Academy Pre-Kindergarten 3Growth Warner-Girls Leadership Academy Pre-Kindergarten 3Growth Dike School of the Arts Pre-Kindergarten 8Growth Adlai Stevenson Pre-Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Andrew J. Rickoff Pre-Kindergarten 8Refocus Anton Grdina Pre-Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Bolton Pre-Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Case Pre-Kindergarten 8Refocus Carl & Louis Stokes, Central Academy Pre-Kindergarten 8 Refocus Charles W. Eliot Pre-Kindergarten 8 Refocus Clara E. Westropp Pre-Kindergarten 8 Growth Daniel E. Morgan Pre-Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Franklin D. Roosevelt Academy Pre-Kindergarten 8 Repurpose H. Barbara Booker Pre-Kindergarten 8Repurpose Hannah Gibbons-Nottingham Pre-Kindergarten 8Repurpose Harvey Rice Pre-Kindergarten 8Repurpose Iowa-Maple Pre-Kindergarten 8 Refocus Joseph M. Gallagher Pre-Kindergarten 8Refocus Marion-Sterling Pre-Kindergarten 8 Monitor Closely Mary M. Bethune Pre-Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Memorial Pre-Kindergarten 8 Monitor Closely Miles Pre-Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Miles Park Pre-Kindergarten 8 Monitor Closely Newton D. Baker Pre-Kindergarten 8Refocus Oliver H. Perry Pre-Kindergarten 8Growth Orchard Pre-Kindergarten 8 Growth Patrick Henry Pre-Kindergarten 8Refocus Paul L. Dunbar Pre-Kindergarten 8 Monitor Closely Paul Revere Pre-Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Robert H. Jamison Pre-Kindergarten 8Repurpose Tremont Montessori Pre-Kindergarten 8Growth Wade Park Pre-Kindergarten 8 Refocus Waverly Pre-Kindergarten 8 Monitor Closely Wilbur Wright Pre-Kindergarten 8 Refocus Almira Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Benjamin Franklin Kindergarten 8Growth Buckeye-Woodland Kindergarten 8Repurpose Buhrer Kindergarten 8Refocus Charles Dickens Kindergarten 8Repurpose Charles A. Mooney Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Clark Kindergarten 8Growth Denison Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely East Clark Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Fullerton Kindergarten 8Refocus George W. Carver Kindergarten 8Repurpose Joseph F. Landis Kindergarten 8Close Louis Agassiz Kindergarten 8Growth Louisa May Alcott Kindergarten 8Growth Luis Muñoz Marín Kindergarten 8Refocus Marion C. Seltzer Kindergarten 8Growth Mary B. Martin Kindergarten 8Repurpose McKinley Kindergarten 8Refocus Michael R. White Kindergarten 8Repurpose Mound Kindergarten 8Repurpose Nathan Hale Kindergarten 8Refocus Robinson G. Jones Kindergarten 8Growth Riverside Kindergarten 8Growth Scranton Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Sunbeam Kindergarten 8Refocus Walton Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely Watterson-Lake Kindergarten 8Growth William C. Bryant Kindergarten 8Growth Willow Kindergarten 8Monitor CloselyArtemus Ward Kindergarten 8Monitor Closely

High schools School Name Lowest Grade Highest Grade Principal Thomas Jefferson Campus -International Newcomers Academy

-Ninth Grade Academy Pre-Kindergarten 9Principal varies in each academy Rhonda A. Saegert

Danielle T. SimmonsWhitney M. Young Gifted & Talented Leadership Academy 2 12 Karen M. Byron-JohnsonBard High School Early College Cleveland 9 12 Cleveland School of the Arts 7 12 Andrew J. Koonce Carl F. Shuler Ninth Grade Academy 9 9 Lisa Williams-Locklear Collinwood High School Campus -College Board Academy

-Interior Design & Fashion Merchandising

-Teaching Professions Academy 9 12Principal varies in each academy Kevin L. Payton

Crystal Maclin

Marnisha Brown East Technical High School Campus -Ninth Grade Academy

-Community Wrap Around Academy

-Engineering & Science Tech Academy

-New Tech 9 12Principal varies in each academy Garrett Morgan School of Science -New Tech 9 12LaVerne Hooks Erin Frew Ginn Academy 9 12Clifford Hayes Jr. Glenville High School Campus -Health Exercise Sports & Recreation Academy

-Programming & Software Development Academy