SMART Academy

SMART Academy is an elementary campus of micro-enrollment scale in Garfield Heights, Ohio, run under SMART Academy, hosting 92 students in grades K through 5. That puts it 77% smaller than the typical public school in Ohio, which averages around 404 students.

Operationally, SMART Academy answers to SMART Academy, which sets policy, hires staff, and reports enrollment to the state.

In terms of who attends, SMART Academy lists that the student body is overwhelmingly Black (89%); the rest looks like 5% Hispanic, 3% multiracial, 2% White. The wider county runs roughly 29% Black, putting the school's mix considerably more Black than the area baseline.

On the resource side, On paper, SMART Academy has 10 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 9.2:1. The state averages around 17.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 97% of students at SMART Academy qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is north of Cuyahoga County's rate of about 27%.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), SMART Academy performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 52.3%, the actual is 45.3%, a residual of -7.0 points.

In the broader community, census data for Cuyahoga County shows median household income runs about $64,468, 37% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 12%. In all, Cuyahoga County runs 352 public schools (combined enrollment of about 155,924 students), of which SMART Academy is one.

Miles School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius.

The campus sits in a commuter-belt setting. As a public charter, SMART Academy runs on public funding but with greater curricular and operational autonomy than a typical district school.

In the discussion threads here, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.