Ohio’s newest school report cards are out, offering a fresh look at how local students are performing, how quickly they are progressing, and how well schools are preparing them for what comes after graduation.
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce released the 2025-2026 report cards Tuesday, September 15. Districts and schools receive overall ratings ranging from one to five stars, along with ratings in six individual components. For Galion City Schools, Colonel Crawford Local Schools and Northmor Local Schools, the results reveal three different performance profiles.
Colonel Crawford’s report card is highlighted by top marks for student progress and graduation. Northmor shows strength in growth and closing achievement gaps. Galion meets state standards in several areas, but student growth and post-high-school readiness emerge as areas needing improvement.
More Than One Number
Three stars on an Ohio report card means a district or school meets state standards, while four and five stars represent performance above those standards.
The overall score, however, is not simply an average of the six component ratings. Achievement and Progress each account for 25 percent of the overall calculation. Gap Closing, Early Literacy, Graduation, and College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness each account for 12.5 percent. That gives particular importance to Achievement and Progress. Achievement measures student performance on state assessments. Progress examines whether students are making the academic gains expected based on previous performance.
Gap Closing looks at performance among groups of students as well as factors including chronic absenteeism and gifted education. Early Literacy focuses on reading through third grade, while the graduation and readiness categories measure whether students are completing high school and preparing for their next step.
Colonel Crawford Posts Strong Growth
Colonel Crawford Local Schools earned four stars in Achievement, five stars in Progress, four stars in Gap Closing, five stars in Graduation and three stars in Early Literacy. The five-star Progress rating is particularly significant because that component represents one-quarter of the district’s overall calculation; it indicates that Colonel Crawford students are making strong academic gains when their current performance is compared with previous results.
The district also received the highest possible rating for Graduation and exceeded state standards in both Achievement and Gap Closing. Early Literacy, at three stars, was the comparatively lower-rated component, although that rating still represents meeting state standards.
Those results continue a pattern of strong report cards for the district. Colonel Crawford received an overall 4.5-star rating for 2024-2025, when district officials reported that about 77 percent of students were meeting state standards compared with approximately 62 percent statewide. The distinction between Achievement and Progress is important. One measures where students currently stand. The other looks at how much ground they are gaining. Colonel Crawford scored well in both.
Galion Meets Basic Standards but Growth Lags
Galion City Schools presents a different picture. The district earned three stars in Achievement, two stars in Progress, and three stars in Gap Closing. It also received three stars in Graduation and Early Literacy, while College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness received two stars. That means much of Galion’s report card falls at the state’s “meets standards” level, but two areas stand out.
The first is Progress. Galion’s three-star Achievement rating indicates that overall academic performance meets state expectations. The two-star Progress rating, however, means students collectively are not demonstrating the amount of year-to-year growth expected under the state’s model. Because Progress counts for 25 percent of the overall rating, that result carries substantial weight.
The second area is College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness. The category examines more than whether students graduate. It measures whether graduates demonstrate preparation for college, technical training, employment or military service through measures including advanced coursework, industry credentials, technical assessments and work-based learning.
That result comes as Galion has been expanding programs aimed specifically at career preparation. The district provides career coaching for high school students and College Credit Plus opportunities, while its Civil Air Patrol Squadron 802 program exposes students to aerospace education, leadership, emergency services and STEM careers. Galion has also focused on improving academic performance. Its ROAR before- and after-school initiative targets literacy and mathematics, and district records show the Board of Education approved a Reading Improvement Plan and Reading Improvement and Monitoring Plans for the 2025-2026 school year. Those initiatives provide useful context. The report card measures where the district stands now, while several ongoing programs are aimed directly at areas reflected in the ratings.
Galion City Schools’ overall 2025-2026 rating is 2.5 stars out of 5.
Northmor Shows Strength in Growth and Gap Closing
Northmor Local Schools also posted strong marks in important areas. The district received four stars in Progress, indicating student growth above state standards, and five stars in Gap Closing, the highest possible rating in that component. Northmor High School received a 4.5-star overall rating. Those results continue a pattern from the previous reporting year, when Northmor also celebrated a 4.5-star district rating.
District officials had identified chronic absenteeism at the junior high and high school as an area for improvement and outlined steps including additional communication with parents and adjustments to the district’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program. Earlier state testing data also showed Northmor performing above statewide averages in several areas, providing additional context for the district’s continued strength in the new report card.
A Statewide Push for Improvement
The three districts are being measured within a statewide accountability system designed to show both academic performance and progress toward preparing students for life after high school. Ohio officials describe the report cards as one source of information rather than a complete measure of a school or district. The Department of Education and Workforce encourages families and communities to consider the ratings alongside their experiences with local schools and information supplied by districts themselves. The 2025-2026 report cards include overall ratings in half-star increments and six rated components, continuing the broader format used in recent years.
Three Districts and Three Different Stories
Taken together, the local results demonstrate why the individual components can be more revealing than the overall rating alone.
Colonel Crawford combines above-standard achievement with particularly strong academic growth and graduation results. Northmor stands out for student growth and Gap Closing. Galion meets state standards in Achievement, Gap Closing, Early Literacy and Graduation, but its two-star ratings in Progress and College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness identify areas where improvement is needed.
And because Progress represents one-quarter of Ohio’s overall calculation, the difference between Galion’s two point stars, Northmor’s four and Colonel Crawford’s five in that category is one of the most consequential contrasts in the three local report cards.
The stars provide the snapshot. The individual components tell the fuller story.