Cincinnati: Education and Research

Cincinnati: Education and Research

Elementary and Secondary Schools

The Cincinnati Public School (CPS) district is spread across the city plus Amberley Village, Cheviot, Golf Manor, most of the city of Silverton, parts of Fairfax and Wyoming, and parts of Anderson, Columbia, Delhi, Green, and Springfield townships, with a total area of about 90 square miles. It is the third-largest public school district in the state. CPS opened the first public Montessori elementary school in the country in 1975. The district now offers 21 high schools with specific focuses, and 22 elementary magnet schools offering nine programs such as the arts, foreign language, and Montessori and Paideia teaching styles. The district's $985 million Facilities Master Plan, launched in 2002, is financing the building or renovation of more than a dozen schools; the first new school resulting from this plan—Rockdale Academy—was completed in January 2005.

The following is a summary of data regarding the CPS district as of the 2003–2004 school year.

Total enrollment: 38,779

Number of facilities

elementary schools: 58 (consisting of both K-6 and K-8 schools)

high schools: 21

Student/teacher ratio: 13.2:1

Teacher salaries

minimum: $34,888

maximum: $69,609

Funding per pupil: $9,749 (2001-2002)

A parochial school system operated by the Catholic Diocese as well as a variety of private schools throughout the area provide instruction from kindergarten through twelfth grade. Cincinnati is home to more than 130 private schools. Its Catholic school system is the ninth largest in the nation.

Public Schools Information: Cincinnati Public Schools, PO Box 5381, Cincinnati, OH 45201; telephone (513)363-0000

Colleges and Universities

The University of Cincinnati (UC), part of Ohio's state higher education system, was founded in 1819. The university has an enrollment of more than 34,000 students and grants degrees at all levels, from associate through doctorate, in a complete range of fields. The university includes a main academic campus, a medical campus, a branch campus in suburban Blue Ash, and a rural branch campus in Clermont County, east of Cincinnati. The university is a nationally recognized research institution known for its professional schools, notably the colleges of medicine, engineering, law, business, applied science, and design, architecture, art, and planning. Cooperative education originated at the University of Cincinnati, in 1906; other UC firsts include the development of the oral polio vaccine and the first antihistamine.

Cincinnati is also home to Xavier University, a Jesuit institution founded in 1831, which offers undergraduate and graduate programs in such areas as theology, criminal justice, psychology, business, education, English, health services administration, nursing, and occupational therapy.

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, a graduate rabbinical seminary, was founded in 1875 and is the nation's oldest institution of higher Jewish education. In addition to its Rabbinical School, the College-Institute includes Schools of Graduate Studies, Education, Jewish Communal Service, Sacred Music, and Biblical Archaeology. Branch campuses are located in Los Angeles, New York, and Jerusalem.

The Athenaeum of Ohio is an accredited center of ministry education and formation within the Roman Catholic tradition. Other colleges in Cincinnati are the Art Academy of Cincinnati, a small independent college of art and design; The Union Institute, designed for adults who have the desire to assume a significant measure of personal responsibility for planning and executing their degree programs; and Cincinnati Bible College and Seminary.

Colleges and universities in the metropolitan area include Miami University in Oxford, offering specialized studies in more than 100 academic majors and pre-professional programs, and particularly known for its business school; Northern Kentucky University; Thomas More College; St. Thomas Institute; and College of Mount St. Joseph.

Vocational and technical education is available at a variety of institutions such as Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, and Gateway Community and Technical College.

Libraries and Research Centers

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is the third-oldest library in the nation, with holdings totaling 9.6 million items. The library system is comprised of a downtown facility and 57 branches. The 542,527 square-foot main library has 15 departments, among them a library for the blind. Special collections cover a range of topics, among them inland rivers, sacred music, patents from 1790 to the present, nineteenth and twentieth century illustrators, and Bibles and English language dictionaries; the library is also a depository for federal documents.

Cincinnati-area colleges and universities also maintain campus libraries. The largest is the University of Cincinnati Libraries, which include a central facility with more than 2.1 million volumes and nearly 20,000 periodical subscriptions; the law school and the University of Cincinnati Medical Center operate separate library systems. The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Klau Library, with holdings of 425,000 volumes and 2,340 periodical subscriptions, is an important center for such subject interests as Hebraica, Judaica, ancient and near-Eastern studies, and rabbinical studies. Several cultural and scientific organizations operate libraries, including the Art Museum, the Cincinnati Museum Center, the Taft Museum, and the Zoological Society. The Cincinnati Historical Society Library holds 90,000 books relating to the history of the United States, Ohio, and the Old Northwest Territory, especially metropolitan Cincinnati.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a library in Cincinnati that is open to the public. Collections of approximately 200,000 volumes are maintained by the Cincinnati Law Library Association and the Young Men's Mercantile Library Association. Among corporations housing libraries for their own personnel and researchers are General Electric and the Andrew Jergens Co. Other specialized libraries are affiliated with hospitals, churches, and synagogues.

The University of Cincinnati (UC) is a major research center, and its research funding continues to increase steadily. In 2003, UC earned more than $300 million in research grants and contracts, an 18 percent increase over the previous year. In addition to the funding increase, the university's Intellectual Property Office reported 86 invention disclosures, 25 U.S. patents filed, and 9 U.S. patents issued during fiscal year 2003. Research is conducted in a wide variety of fields, including sociology, biology, aeronautics, health, psychology, and archaeology. The university's Medical Center campus features such research facilities as the Genome Research Institute, and is home to BIO/START, a biomedical business incubator.

Public Library Information: Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 800 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202-2009; telephone (513)369-6900