CMSD CEO cites graduations, test-rate gains and sets five-year goals and guardrails

Cleveland Metropolitan School District Chief Executive Officer Warren Morgan reported to the Board of Education on June 24 that the district's Class of 2025 produced roughly 1,959 graduates, showed higher standardized-test participation and posted preliminary gains in math while the district rolls out five-year goals and guardrails.

Morgan said the district had "just a little shy of 2,000 graduates" and highlighted several program-specific accomplishments, including three students at Davis Aerospace and Maritime School who earned pilot's licenses and 96% of students at Bard who earned an associate degree while completing high school. He also noted that the district's OST (Ohio State Tests) participation rate this year was the highest on record, "and that's at 96 percent," though he cautioned the OST figures presented were preliminary and exclude charter partners and some untested students.

The CEO said the district achieved a 3-star rating for the first time, received credit-rating upgrades from S&P and Fitch, and improved its five-year financial forecast by $196,000,000 from May 2024 to May 2025. He reported a drop in the districtwide rate of serious incidents from 3.5% to 2.9% year over year.

Morgan outlined the district's three top-line five-year goals that the board already approved in the spring: early literacy, math proficiency and college readiness. He described accompanying "interims" ' measurable, shorter-term indicators the district will report to the board to track progress toward those top-line goals. Examples Morgan cited include K-3 students on track (measured by the I-Ready fall benchmark), winter I-Ready predictions for third-grade reading proficiency, algebra proficiency for first-time test takers (measured by NWEA), and freshman on-track indicators for credit accumulation.

Board members asked for clarifications about cohort labeling in the math interims. One board member asked, "When we last discussed it, we had the class of 2032. What, why did that change or am I missing something?" Dr. Florence, a CMSD staff member who assisted the presentation, explained that cohort language reflects whether the cohort is being identified by the year they will be entering or leaving ninth grade and that the district would clarify the labeling.

Morgan said some interim baselines present challenges that require attention: the district's baseline chronic-absence rate for ninth grade is 71%, which he described as "a call to action," and several career-technical and extracurricular participation measures currently have low baselines. Morgan also reviewed operational changes completed in 2024—25, including implementing an online gradebook, adopting a new ELA curriculum, launching a student-based budgeting approach and passing a combined operating-and-bond levy last fall at what he described as the district's highest rate for a combined measure.

The CEO stressed the district's caveats about the preliminary nature of some results and the exclusion of charter data from the '25 column of test results, and he said the district will present interims at future board meetings to allow the board to monitor progress and suggest adjustments.

Morgan closed by urging continued focus and said the district team is "living into" the board goals and that the board should expect interim reporting in the coming year.