Original Research by School Decision on Taft Center for Innovation
Taft Center for Innovation is a public preschool program serving children in pre-K. It is operated by Lakewood City Schools as a regular school, located on Lake Avenue in Lakewood.
The enrollment is small, with children distributed across a single pre-K classroom. A small number of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with representation from Hispanic, multiracial, and Black families in smaller numbers.
Because this is a preschool program serving only pre-K, state academic testing and graduation data do not apply. There are no proficiency results, growth metrics, attendance rates, or four-year graduation figures to report. This is the nature of early-childhood programs—they sit outside the state accountability system that applies to elementary and secondary grades.
Lakewood City Schools operates this center as part of a district-wide shift in early-childhood services. In October 2025, the school board approved a plan to repurpose Lincoln Elementary into a new preschool Early Learning Center beginning in the 2027-2028 school year. That transition will bring additional preschool capacity to the district and affect elementary attendance zones across the system, since several specialized programs will be relocated to make room.
The broader Lakewood context matters for families considering this program. Lakewood is a dense, walkable inner-ring suburb of Cleveland on Lake Erie's southern shore. It is Ohio's most densely populated city, with a strong streetcar-era urban character—two- and three-story homes, apartment buildings, active commercial corridors on Detroit and Madison Avenues, and identifiable neighborhoods like the Gold Coast, Clifton Park, and Birdtown. The city does not provide school busing, so walking to school is a defining feature of daily life. Most residents live within a five-minute walk of a park. Transit is available through six RTA bus lines and two rapid rail stations.
The housing market in the zip code is stable. Home values and rental rates have risen modestly year over year. The median home listing price and per-square-foot valuations are below both state and national benchmarks, making Lakewood relatively more affordable than much of Ohio and the nation. Rents track at roughly the national average as a share of median household income.
Lakewood is undergoing significant downtown redevelopment, with roughly a thousand new housing units being added through projects like the former hospital site, now under active construction, and several other infill developments along Detroit Avenue. This growth is reshaping the city's residential base and may affect school enrollment patterns over the coming years.
In May 2026, voters approved a new operating levy for the school district—the first new operating funds since 2020. Collections begin in 2027 and are intended to stabilize funding for staffing, programs, and technology. For families weighing a move into Lakewood, this levy resets the local property-tax baseline.
A parent may want to discuss with the district the timeline and details of the new Early Learning Center at Lincoln, since that project will reshape preschool access and elementary boundaries across Lakewood schools in 2027-2028.
See more original research from School Decision →