By Ronda Watson Barber
Publisher, OhioMBE
Give Columbus City Schools credit where credit is due.
CCS says the Class of 2026 achieved an 84.6% four-year graduation rate, up from 81.4% for the Class of 2025 and 78.3% in 2023. The Columbus Dispatch described the 84.6% rate as the district’s best graduation rate this century.
Black students reportedly reached an 89.6% graduation rate, while economically disadvantaged students reached 84.5%.
That’s good news.
More students graduating on time deserves recognition. Students should be proud. Families should celebrate. Teachers and staff who helped those young people cross the finish line deserve credit.
But taxpayers shouldn’t confuse a rising graduation rate with proof that Columbus City Schools’ academic problems have been solved.
And the timing of this announcement deserves a closer look.
Why This Number Now?
CCS released the preliminary Class of 2026 graduation numbers just before Ohio’s state report cards were released.
There’s an important distinction taxpayers need to understand:
The 84.6% isn’t the graduation rate being used on this year’s state report card.
Because graduation data lag behind the current graduating class, this year’s report card uses earlier cohorts.
According to CCS’s preliminary report-card information, the district’s graduation calculation is based on a four-year graduation rate of 81.5% and a five-year rate of 86%, producing a weighted graduation rate of 83.3%.
The resulting graduation component?
One star.
CCS says the preliminary Class of 2026 rate could help improve its graduation component on next year’s state report card.
That doesn’t make the 84.6% less significant.
But it certainly changes the context.
A taxpayer reading about the district’s best graduation rate this century could reasonably believe that number is part of the state report card being released now.
It isn’t.
What Does Graduation Actually Tell Us?
Here’s the bigger question for me:
Are more students graduating because they’re academically better prepared, or because CCS has become better at helping students satisfy graduation requirements?
Those aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Graduation rate and academic proficiency measure different things.
CCS says it has expanded credit-recovery and flexible-learning opportunities, including targeted coursework and other recovery programs.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that.
If a student falls behind and the district provides legitimate additional instruction that allows that student to recover credits and earn a diploma, that’s exactly the kind of support we should want available.
But taxpayers should know how much those programs contributed to the increase.
How many members of the Class of 2026 used credit recovery?
How does that compare with previous graduating classes?
Are reading and math proficiency increasing alongside graduation?
How many graduates are college- or career-ready?
Those answers would tell us considerably more about what the 84.6% represents.
Because ultimately, a diploma has to mean something.
When a CCS graduate applies for a job, college, apprenticeship or military service, that diploma should represent a young person prepared for what comes next.
The Record Has Another Side
There’s also something hidden by an 84.6% districtwide average.
Roughly 15 out of every 100 students still aren’t graduating within four years.
And some groups are considerably below the district average.
CCS reported four-year graduation rates of approximately 71.8% for Hispanic students, 73.5% for English learners, 73.5% for students with disabilities and 74.7% for students experiencing homelessness.
Those students are part of this story, too.
We can celebrate the districtwide improvement while asking why roughly one out of every four students in some populations still isn’t graduating on time.
The 4.5-Star Confusion Matters
We’ve already seen what can happen when numbers are presented without enough explanation.
CCS has prominently highlighted its 4.5-star Career Technical Education rating.
Career Tech earning 4.5 stars is an accomplishment and should be celebrated.
But Career Technical Education has a separate state report card. The 4.5-star CTE rating is not a component that was simply added to the district’s overall rating.
Yet I’ve heard from community members who believe exactly that.
Some believe the 4.5-star Career Tech rating helped pull Columbus City Schools up to its current overall district rating. Others have questioned whether CCS would have received even 2.5 stars without Career Tech.
That’s not how the ratings work.
And the fact that so many people are confused should concern CCS.
I don’t blame the community for misunderstanding it.
If taxpayers are walking away from district communications believing that a 4.5-star Career Tech rating elevated the district’s overall state report-card rating, then something hasn’t been communicated clearly enough.
That’s an important distinction because it changes how people perceive the district’s academic performance.
A taxpayer who hears “CCS earned 4.5 stars in Career Tech” alongside discussion of the district’s overall report card can easily come away believing those 4.5 stars helped produce the districtwide rating.
They didn’t.
The district’s overall report card and its Career Technical Education report card measure different things.
CCS should make that distinction unmistakable every time it discusses the two.
So, Is This Propaganda?
That’s a strong word.
I’m not suggesting CCS fabricated the numbers. The improvement appears real, and the students who earned those diplomas deserve to have their accomplishments celebrated.
My concern is how public information is presented.
Information can be factually correct and still leave the public with an incomplete impression.
If I tell you my business increased revenue 20%, that sounds great.
But if my expenses increased 50% and the company lost money—and I conveniently leave that part out—I haven’t necessarily lied.
I’ve selected the number that makes me look best.
That’s spin.
And when a taxpayer-funded institution selectively emphasizes favorable statistics, taxpayers have every right to question whether communications are informing the public or managing public perception.
That’s particularly important considering the rest of the CCS accountability picture.
The district previously projected an overall rating of 2.5 stars, with significant challenges remaining in areas including Early Literacy.
The numbers themselves may all be accurate.
The question is whether the way they’re communicated helps taxpayers understand how the pieces fit together.
This Is About Trust
Columbus City Schools should celebrate its successes.
Parents need good news. Teachers and staff deserve recognition when their work produces results. Most importantly, students deserve to celebrate their accomplishments.
But CCS isn’t selling a product.
It’s a public institution responsible for educating our children and spending taxpayer dollars.
Its communications should help the public understand performance, not simply feel better about it.
I want the graduation rate to reach 90%.
Then 95%.
Then 100%.
And seeing Black students reportedly graduating at 89.6% is certainly something worth recognizing.
But I also want to know those graduates can read, write, calculate, think critically and compete.
I want to know whether taxpayers are receiving a return on the enormous investment we’re making in this school district.
So celebrate 84.6%.
But also explain what it means.
Tell us whether proficiency is rising with graduation.
Tell us how many students required credit recovery.
Tell us about the children who still aren’t graduating.
Explain why a rising graduation rate can coexist with a one-star graduation component.
And when you talk about that impressive 4.5-star Career Tech rating, make it crystal clear that it did not elevate the district’s overall rating.
We’re grown. We can handle good news and bad news at the same time.
Give us the complete picture and let taxpayers decide what it means.
Because the question isn’t whether 84.6% is progress.
It is.
The question is whether we’re being given enough information to determine how much progress Columbus City Schools is actually making.
That’s the difference between communication and spin.
And when taxpayers are left confused about what the numbers actually mean, it’s fair to ask:
Is this progress—or propaganda?
Just my thoughts.
Ronda Watson Barber is Publisher of OhioMBE, Ohio’s largest Black-owned business newspaper.
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