Cleveland: Education and Research

Cleveland: Education and Research

Elementary and Secondary Schools

The Cleveland Municipal School District, administered by a seven-member nonpartisan board that appoints a superintendent, enrolls the largest student population of any Ohio school system. It is one of 31 districts in Cuyahoga County. More than 300 businesses and other organizations have joined in a partnership with the city's 121 schools; one of these is NASA John H. Glenn Research Center.

Cleveland's schools experienced academic, financial, and structural crises in the mid-2000s. In 2004 the high school graduation rate was only 40.8 percent, while only 11.3 percent of residents achieved a college degree. Worsening the situation, the Cleveland Municipal School District had a $36 million operating deficit; in order to rectify the shortfall, the board of education planned to close a number of schools and lay-off part of the workforce for the 2005–2006 school year. In June 2002, prompted by the collapse of a school gym roof, a $1.5 billion Facilities Plan was approved to replace or renovate each school in the district within 10-12 years.

The following is a summary of data regarding Cleveland public schools as of the 2004–2005 school year.

Total enrollment: 73,943

Number of facilities

elementary schools: 59

K–8 schools: 31

middle schools: 13

senior high schools: 19

other: 2

Student/teacher ratio: 16.5:1

Teacher salaries average: $45,156

Funding per pupil: $8,950

More than 30 parochial and private schools offer a range of educational alternatives at the pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, and secondary levels in the Cleveland metropolitan area. Among them is the University School, a more than 100-year-old kindergarten-through twelfth-grade independent day school for boys.

Public Schools Information: Cleveland Municipal School District, 1380 E. 6th St., Cleveland, OH 44114; telephone (216)574-8000; email info@cmsdnet.net

Colleges and Universities

Cleveland State University (CSU), predominantly a commuter institution, enrolls more than 16,500 students. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in 60 fields, including doctoral programs in regulatory biology, chemistry, engineering, urban studies, and urban education. CSU's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law is the largest law school in Ohio. Case Western Reserve University offers undergraduate, graduate, and professional education in 60 areas of study such as medicine, dentistry, nursing, law, management, and applied social sciences; it is a major research institution ranking among the best in undergraduate engineering and business programs. Cleveland College of Jewish Studies is one of only five colleges in North America to be accredited as an institution of higher Jewish learning.

The Cleveland Institute of Art offers a five-year bachelor of fine arts program. The Cleveland Institute of Music grants baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various music fields in conjunction with Case Western Reserve University, which provides the academic curriculum. Other colleges in Cleveland include David N. Myers University, formerly known as Dyke College, and Cuyahoga Community College (CCC), which is the city's largest college and the fourth largest in the state. Offering career education leading to an associate degree and enrolling more than 22,000 students at its Metropolitan, Eastern, and Western campuses, CCC's programs include allied health, business technologies, engineering technologies, early childhood education, law enforcement, and mental health.

Among the colleges and universities enrolling more than 1,000 students and located in the surrounding area or within commuting distance of Cleveland are Baldwin-Wallace College, John Carroll University, Kent State University, Lakeland Community College, Lorain County Community College, Oberlin College, University of Akron, and Ursuline College, which is the oldest Catholic women's college in the nation.

Libraries and Research Centers

Approximately 90 libraries are operated in Cleveland by a diverse range of public agencies, private corporations, and other organizations. The Cleveland Public Library maintains a main facility (recently restored), 28 branches, a Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and a Public Administration Library in City Hall. The Cleveland Public Library, said to be the nation's second largest municipal library, has more than 9 million items that include more than 3 million volumes, more than 6,000 current periodical titles, 4 million microforms, 1 million photographs, 137,000 sound recordings, 173,000 maps, 97,000 videos and DVDs, as well as computer software and CD-ROMS. The library is a depository for federal, state, international, local, and United Nations documents. The Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped offers 11,000 Braille titles, 150,000 cassettes, and 48,000 discs; the library also includes material on visual and physical disabilities in their collection.

In 2003 the Ohio Center for the Book was dedicated at the main Cleveland Public Library, enabling it to serve the entire state. That year the library system became the first in the nation to offer eBooks to patrons. The Langston Hughes branch was the recipient of an Ohio Historical Marker in December 2003 in honor of its namesake, the Cleveland poet James Mercer Langston Hughes.

The Cuyahoga County Public Library, which houses nearly 3 million books, operates four large regional libraries, 22 branch libraries, and two mini libraries in communities throughout the county. The Western Reserve Historical Society, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History maintain reference libraries. As a major research institution, Case Western Reserve University maintains holdings of more than 1.5 million books, nearly 14,000 periodical subscriptions, and approximately 35 special collections in such fields as literature, history, philosophy, urban studies, psychology, and the sciences; six departmental libraries are also located on campus. The Cleveland Health Sciences Library is operated by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Medical Library Association. Other colleges and universities, as well as several corporations, hospitals, and religious organizations, maintain libraries in the city.

More than 400 public and private research centers are based in the Cleveland metropolitan area. Among them are the John H. Glenn Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Cleveland Clinic Educational Foundation, and the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Institute. In 2003 Case Western Reserve University was awarded an $18 million grant to create the Wright Center of Innovation to focus on fuel cell research. University Hospitals represents the largest concentration of biomedical research in Ohio. Greater Cleveland's medical community as a whole receives more than $100 million in research dollars from the National Institutes of Health each year, making Cleveland a leading center nationwide for biomedical research and spending.

Public Library Information: Cleveland Public Library, 325 Superior Ave. NE, Cleveland, OH 44114-1271; telephone (216)623-2800; fax (216)623-7015; email info@library.cpl.org