Loveland City School District earned a five-star overall rating on the 2025-26 Ohio School Report Card released Tuesday, Sept. 15, ranking 26th out of 607 public districts statewide.

The rating places Loveland in the top 4% of Ohio public schools and marks a half-star improvement over the district's 4.5-star score on the 2024-25 report card. Sycamore Community Schools, which serves part of Symmes Township, also earned five stars. Milford Exempted Village Schools earned 4.5 stars.

Only 61 of Ohio's 607 K-12 public districts earned the top five-star rating this year, according to WYSO. Loveland was one of just 10 districts in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties to reach that mark, according to a district press release.

Superintendent Mike Broadwater called the results "a great recipe for success" and credited families, staff and the wider community.

"Our families send us outstanding students who come to school ready to learn, our staff works hard to build a great school culture where students can succeed, and our community supports the district," Broadwater said in the release.

Loveland earned 4.438 overall rating points, the fifth-highest among southwest Ohio districts. The district also earned five stars on the 2023-24 and 2022-23 report cards before dipping to 4.5 stars last year.

Milford and Sycamore

Milford, the second-largest school system in Clermont County with about 5,400 students across 10 schools, earned 4.5 stars. A rating of 3 stars means a district meets state standards; anything above exceeds them, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Sycamore serves about 5,900 students across seven schools, with its main campus in Blue Ash and Symmes Elementary in Loveland. Its five-star rating matched the district's strong recent track record.

A split-county question

Loveland straddles Clermont and Hamilton counties, and the state report card lists the district under both. Under Clermont County, Loveland received five stars. Under Hamilton County, the same district appears with a 2.5-star rating, according to WCPO.

That's a wide gap.

The district's own press release does not address the Hamilton County listing. No public explanation from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce appeared in any published account as of Wednesday, Sept. 16. The split may reflect how the state scores different portions of a district that crosses county lines, but the cause remains unclear.

Ohio's report card system rates districts on six components: Achievement and Progress, each weighted at 25%, and Gap Closing, Early Literacy, Graduation, and College/Career/Workforce/Military Readiness, each at 12.5%.

Statewide, English language arts proficiency reached a five-year high of 62.2%, and math proficiency hit 56.4%. Chronic absenteeism dropped from 30.2% in the 2021-22 school year to 23.9% last year.

Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Director Steve Dackin said every student subgroup made progress in literacy over the past year.

Component-level scores for individual districts are available on the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce's report card website.