SHELBY – Shelby City Schools educates 1,748 students. More than 95 percent are projected to graduate from high school, according to the recent Ohio school report card.
Report cards are a yearly tradition from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Every public school and district gets a rating used to track its success on several measures year to year.
Shelby earned a four-star rating out of a possible five on its report card for the 2025-26 school year. The separate ratings are as follows.
- Achievement: 4 stars
- Progress: 4 stars
- Gap Closing: 4 stars
- Graduation: 4 stars
- Early Literacy: 2 stars
- College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness: 5 stars
Shelby Middle School was the highest-rated of the three schools comprising the district, earning a 4.5-star rating. The high school and elementary school earned a 4-star rating.
“That just shows the hard work that the teachers and really all of our staff put into their everyday work,” said Shelby Supt. Michael Browning. “That shows that we’re doing everything and exceeding those expectations that the state has for us.”
Graduation rate was one of numerous four-star ratings Shelby received, and one that has continued to climb. The district received four stars on 10 of the 15 categories.
“If I’m not mistaken, that’s the highest graduation rate over the last 15 years,” Browning said. “That goes back to our staff doing a great job of helping kids with their individual needs to make them see that dropping out of high school is not the wise choice.
“Quitting is easy. (So, we’re) making sure that they realize that the hard thing is to fight through some of the difficulties that they have throughout their K-12 education.”
Shelby’s highest marks were in elementary school gap closing and high school college, career, workforce and military readiness, earning five stars. Its lowest were two-star ratings in high school progress and elementary school early literacy.
What do school report card components mean?
Achievement is a measure of how well students in grades 3 through 12 performed on state tests.
Progress measures how much growth students are making, based on state test results from prior years. For the 2025-2026 report cards, ratings are based on three consecutive years of data.
Gap Closing measures how well schools close achievement gaps for students of different races, students with disabilities and students from economically disadvantaged families. The gap closing metric is also impacted by chronic absenteeism rates and how well the district serves gifted students.
Graduation is determined by a high school’s four-year graduation rate (60 percent of the score) and its five-year graduation rate (40 percent of the score).
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, including entering the workforce, enlisting in the military or pursuing additional education. Districts get points for students who do things like pass the ACT or SAT, earn an honors diploma, complete college courses or earn industry recognized credentials.
“Early literacy changed just how they calculate,” Browning said. “We haven’t changed anything. The way that the state calculates that has changed.
“I think if they calculated things the same this year as they did last, I think we would have been a three-star … I know the work that (our teachers) put in and the efforts they make. I assume that we’ll climb back up very shortly.”
Browning maintains early literacy is a point of improvement the district will continue to monitor.
“Just seeing the two stars, we know that we need to improve in that area,” Browning said. “That’s the one that just kind of sticks out because everything else is so much higher.”
What do stars mean and how are they weighed?
The pillars on which Ohio School Report Cards are graded are given a rating between one and five stars. Achievement and progress are weighted at a quarter of the school’s grade each, making up half of the equation. The other four are all at 12.5%.
One star indicates a lack of support for a district, leading to failure to provide for the student in the regard to which it is associated. Three stars mean expectations have been met, and five stars indicate far exceeding the expectations set by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
Report cards also supply supplementary data on the districts or schools. Attendance, graduation rate, chronic absentee rate and several staff-related numbers are given.
Shelby City School teachers had an attendance rate of 95.6-percent, with an average salary of $68,789 and 17 years of experience in the 2025-26 school year. The district had 1,748 students, a 13.7-percent chronic absentee rate and a 95.5 percent four-year graduation rate.
