Arbor Elementary's bottom-half ranking raises equity questions for Euclid's east-side elementary schools

At Arbor Elementary, at 20400 Arbor Avenue, Euclid's youngest readers are learning to sound out words — and the school now sits in the bottom half of Ohio elementary schools for 2026-27, according to PublicSchoolReview. That ranking lands even as Euclid City Schools climbed to three out of five stars on the state's 2025-26 report card, up from 2.5 stars the year before.

The district's rise came with strong marks in Gap Closing and Progress, the components that measure whether students who started behind are catching up. Superintendent Karen Brown put the work plainly: "At Euclid Schools, our responsibility is clear: to ensure every student is prepared for what comes next—college, career, and life."

But the improvement has not reached every elementary school equally. Arbor's test scores land in the bottom 50% in both math and reading, with 37% of students proficient in math and 40% proficient in reading.

The gap on Arbor Avenue

Arbor's bottom-half ranking lines up with the district's own acknowledged weak spot. Early literacy, graduation, and chronic absenteeism remained challenges even as the district improved, according to Cleveland.com's breakdown of the state report card. For Arbor families, that challenge is concrete: a majority of the school's students are below proficiency in both core subjects.

The school on Arbor Avenue

Principal LaWanda Johnson and assistant principal Velma Bell-Clark lead Arbor Elementary, according to the school's official page, updated September 24. The school enrolls 388 students in grades K-5, and PublicSchoolReview reports the enrollment as 98% minority — 81% Black, 9% two or more races, 7% Hispanic, 2% White, and 1% Asian.

The question Arbor families are asking

Brown says the district's responsibility is to prepare every student for what comes next. But Arbor's bottom-half ranking — and the fact that most of its students are below proficiency in reading and math — leaves an open question: when Euclid City Schools gets better on paper, does it get better on Arbor Avenue?