However - as the exodus out of the district occurred - those students (whom I fully believe and have much anecdotal evidence to prove, and could dig up the hard evidence anytime) that leave are the ones who prop up the average.  Upon their exit - the overall averages go down.

Talk to any teacher today who teaches a core subject (think the 3 R's) and they'll tell you many of these kids have no support system at home - no one to push them, no accountability - NO PARENTING - and without that encouragement and expectation there's no need for these kids to do anything but keep the truancy officers at bay.

Couple that with the participation trophy culture where we now have Democrat Presidential Candidates demanding FEDERAL LAW to be rewritten to include a $15/minimum wage - it just exacerbates the problem.

The Japanese have it right.  There's no forcing people into secondary and post-secondary education because they 'need' it - if you're an academic in junior-secondary - you get to keep going to achieve to your ability. 

If you aren't - well that's where trade schools, fine arts academies and the like are afforded to the individuals. By 14, most of their kids are on their way to success as tradespeople.  Amazing!

This country has forced these kids now into a compulsory educational path that extends to 26 years old!  According to the liberals if you don't have a college education you'll never be anything.  That was their way of cornering the market on those who aren't highly educated (i.e. blue-collar workers, many being unionized) and then turning the entire blue-collar middle-class against the upper income class.

Where am I going with this?  The modern Democrats and liberals have been working on this forever - and the degradation of the schools was tantamount to their plan.  

As a Christian - I've always been sort-of opposed to Christian schools. Why?  Because when we started building Christian schools and taking our children away from the public schools - we lost our voice.  And rightly so - you can't have a voice in an institution unless you have some skin in the game.

Therefore we've created (and even secular people have created it too with academies and charter schools and such) a system of public schools that are void of the influence that once made our schools so great.

I'm at a loss when I read your last sentence, 'Until they change to improve education quality...' - what exactly can they change?  Every district is graded the same way - and therefore they've started teaching to the test.  They only focus on getting those kids from one grade level to the next - just to save face.

I didn't see the article on the papers website....but an excellent find - and you are right - after reviewing all the recent numbers...it's not true to portray that there has been 

First - there is an 'entitlement' in everyone's mind that every kid has the right to a free public education.

Second - most people are ignorant that all that glitters is not gold.

Third - it has been proven time and time again that school districts hold parents hostage when funding is inadequate.

Add all of those up and you have a recipe for disaster.

On the surface - everyone supports new schools.  I will admit - the high school is nice - it's overly nice and should have just been built bare-bones----but it is what it is now. We've unnecessarily spent millions, and sadly Vet, you are right.  There is no measurable progress.

Middletown schools were once the crown jewel of our city - now they lie in waste at the taxpayers feet - albeit in new facades. 

However - who is really at fault?  Could it be the importation of poverty into our town reflected in the educational statistics?  Could it be that parents just don't care?  Could it be the administration? Could it be that we have too much administration?  There's lots of things that it could be....

But....looking at the listing of all districts from the last report - its pretty clear to me that there's a direct correlation between household income and educational achievement....with the current state of our city, the results are not surprising.  

I noticed that now 4 of our elementary schools (on the 2019-2020 new list that was published last week) are voucher schools now - and that is just going to make things worse.

Every Ohio school district ranked from 1 to 608, with Solon, Ottawa Hills, Indian Hill at top.

You can read the article for more details, but I compiled just the districts in our area (Butler, Warren, Hamilton, and Montgomery counties) for reference as to where they rank: