ONTARIO — One area of Ontario Local Schools’ state report card made a notable jump as the district retained its four-star rating.
The College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness score rose from two stars last year to four stars on the 2025-26 report card released Tuesday by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
The report card measures districts in areas ranging from academic achievement and graduation to early literacy and preparation for life after high school.
How Ontario Local Schools performed
What do these components mean?
Achievement is a measure of how well students performed on state tests.
Progress is a measure of the growth students are making based on their past performance.
Gap Closing is a measure of the reduction in educational gaps among students of different races, ones with special needs and those from economically disadvantaged families.
Graduation is a measure of the four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate and the five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.
Early Literacy is a measure of reading improvement and proficiency for students in kindergarten through third grade.
College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness is a measure of how prepared Ohio’s students are for future opportunities, whether training in a technical field or preparing for work or college.
- Achievement: 4 stars
- Progress: 3 stars
- Gap Closing: 5 stars
- Graduation: 5 stars
- Early Literacy: 3 stars
- College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness: 4 stars
The improvement in College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness particularly stood out to Strickler. He said the district has spent significant time developing opportunities for students after high school.
“I was really, really proud of the work at the high school,” he said. “That measure has been something that has really been a work in progress for us.”
He added Ontario has focused on industry-recognized credentials and military opportunities, among other efforts, to prepare students for life after graduation.
“I am thrilled with getting the four-star,” he said.
The district has additional work underway, which he said will not appear on the report card for a couple of years.
“We’re doing some pretty great things with the kids,” Strickler said. “I know there’s a whole lot that’s not even on this report card that we’re doing that we’re going to see in the future.”
Strickler said the district focuses on giving high school students opportunities through career-tech programs, College Credit Plus, campus visits, internships and programs through Pioneer Career and Technology Center in Shelby.
He said the district works to accelerate students while making sure they have meaningful opportunities.
The district’s individual buildings also earned strong marks, with Ontario High School and Ontario Middle School receiving four stars and Stingel Elementary earning 4.5 stars.
Strickler said the report card gives families a way to see how the district performs across different areas.
“Something that I harp on all the time is growth and never holding kids back,” he said. “It’s incredible what I see our kids do.”
Strickler looks beyond the stars
“Because I’m a resident and parent, as well, when I look at this it’s very apparent it’s an extremely healthy district,” Strickler said. “As a superintendent, that’s what really makes me happy because I’m looking at it right now and it’s very clear.”
He also pointed to the district’s spending as part of what makes the results meaningful. Strickler said Ontario spends $2,800 less per student than the state average.
“We’d have to be spending another $5 million a year just to get to the state average,” he said.
Strickler credited the entire district for maintaining that level of efficiency.
“That’s not me. That’s everybody in the district doing a lot of roles,” he said.
Teachers and staff members work extra hard to make the district’s success possible, the superintendent said.
Strickler also highlighted the number of students who take tests above their grade level.
Rather than keeping every student on the same academic track, he said Ontario works to give students opportunities to advance when they are ready.
The approach requires more work from teachers, administrators and others across the district, but he said he considers the opportunities more important than the report card’s stars.
“I’m just really appreciative of all the hard work of the staff to be able to do this,” he said.
“Whenever I talk to anybody in all these meetings, we’re always talking about what is the right way to do something,” he said. “And that doesn’t always happen everywhere.”
Ontario’s attendance and early literacy
Strickler also pointed to the district’s low chronic absenteeism rate, which sits at 7.6 percent.
He credited the district’s attendance officer, along with the school environment, for helping keep students in school and making sure that number stays low.
“It’s a place that they want to be. It has a good culture and good environment,” Strickler said. “They’re treated well and they feel safe.”
Early literacy remains an area where the district continues to work. Ontario received three stars in the category.
Early Literacy by the numbers:
- 66 percent — Overall Early Literacy Component
- 62 percent — Third-grade reading proficiency
- 88.9 percent — Students promoted to fourth grade after meeting test-score requirements.
- 40.4 percent — Improving K-3 Literacy measure
Third-grade reading measure looks at the percentage of students who scored proficient on the reading portion of the state English language arts test.
Promotion measure looks at students who met the state’s requirements through their English language arts score, reading sub-score or an alternative reading assessment.
Improving K-3 Literacy measure looks at whether students who were previously off track moved to on-track status and reached grade-level reading.
Strickler said the state continues to change the early literacy measures, making the category difficult to navigate.
“I’m glad that we were at a three,” he said. “I didn’t even know if we were going to be at a three just based on how the state keeps moving these things.”
Strickler added he remains proud of the district’s overall performance and the work behind the numbers.
“I know what it takes to pull this off. It takes a lot of work.” he added. “That’s way more important to me than what the stars say.”
