Background
Cincinnati Public Schools
Mary Ronan is the superintendent of the Cincinnati school district.
The Cincinnati school district is Ohio’s third-largest school district. More than 32,000 students attend its 57 schools. Two-thirds of its students are African American and about the same proportion (70 percent) are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
Looking at graduation rates, 60 percent of Cincinnati’s class of 2010 graduated from high school within four years.
In the 2010-11 school year, 55 percent of Cincinnati fifth graders could demonstrate basic, grade-level reading skills and 48 percent could demonstrate basic, grade-level math skills, according to the district’s state report card. For eighth graders, those figures were 76 percent for reading and 61 percent for math.
For the 2010-11 state report cards, Cincinnati was the only Ohio urban school district to receive a state rating of “Effective,” the equivalent of a “B.”
The district is governed by a seven-member Board of Education, with all members being elected at-large to four-year terms.
The district’s current superintendent is Mary Ronan, who was selected in April 2009. Ronan has worked for the Cincinnati school district since 1976, serving as a central office administrator, school principal and math and science teacher.
The union that represents Cincinnati teachers is the American Federation of Teachers Local 1520, commonly known as the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers. It is headed by Julie Sellers.
