Sycamore Community Schools landed the state's highest mark on the 2025-26 Ohio School Report Card, earning a 5-star overall rating released Tuesday, Sept. 15.

The district serves about 5,900 students across seven schools in Montgomery, Blue Ash and Sycamore Township, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. It is one of just 61 out of 607 K-12 public districts statewide to reach the top tier. In Hamilton County, only four other districts matched that score: Forest Hills, Indian Hill, Mariemont and Wyoming, according to WCPO.

The rating is not new territory for Sycamore. The district also earned 5 stars on the 2023 report card, according to a Sept. 14, 2023, post from the district's official account on X.

Ohio's report card system, adopted ahead of the 2021-22 school year, replaced the old A-F letter grades. It scores districts on a 5-star scale across six components. Achievement and Progress each count for 25% of the overall score. Gap Closing, Early Literacy, Graduation and College, Career, Workforce and Military Readiness each count for 12.5%.

Three stars means a district meets state standards. Anything higher means it exceeded them.

Statewide, the results showed gains. English language arts proficiency hit a five-year high of 62.2%, and math proficiency reached 56.4%, also a five-year high, the Statehouse News Bureau reported.

Steve Dackin, director of the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, pointed to literacy progress across student groups. "Every subgroup that we have made progress over this last year in literacy. Every subgroup," Dackin told the Statehouse News Bureau on Sept. 16. "I don't think we've seen that for a long time as a state."

The 5-star rating arrives as Sycamore heads toward a levy vote. The school board passed a Resolution of Necessity for a combination current expense and permanent improvement levy at its May 12 work session. The district has posted a ballot-issue FAQ page on its website for families seeking details.

The state report card is separate from private ranking services. Sycamore also earned an A+ overall grade from Niche's 2026 rankings, placing it in the top 2% of districts nationally. Sycamore High School scored 97.12 out of 100 from U.S. News & World Report, landing in the top 3% of nearly 18,000 public high schools evaluated.

Families can review the full report card results at reportcard.education.ohio.gov.