The top reported proficiency rate is 87% in Social studies. The lowest is 70% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Fernway Elementary School
Fernway Elementary School is a small kindergarten-through-fourth-grade public school in Shaker Heights, serving a neighborhood community in an inner-ring suburb of Cleveland. The school sits in a planned residential district characterized by historic design rules, tree-lined streets, and deep setbacks—a Van Sweringen-era garden suburb now anchored by the newer Van Aken mixed-use district and connected to downtown Cleveland by light rail.
Academic performance at Fernway is solid. In the most recent state assessment window, students achieved proficiency rates in the upper range across the tested subjects: language arts reached the higher end among elementary subjects, math was above the midpoint, and science proficiency was in the middle range. When those results are averaged across tested grades and subjects, the school's overall proficiency index places it above the midpoint compared to other elementary and K-8 schools in Cuyahoga County. The school administers state tests in grades 3 and 4, so kindergarten and grades 1-2 do not appear in these measures; this reflects the design of Ohio's testing calendar rather than a school-level gap. All tested students participated in assessments, indicating full engagement with the state evaluation system.
The enrollment is small, just under three hundred students, and relatively stable within grade bands. Free-and-reduced-price lunch eligibility covers about one-quarter of the student body, suggesting a mixed-income catchment. The student population is roughly split between white students and Black students, with a smaller presence of multiracial and Hispanic students, and very few Asian and no Native American students. The school's racial composition mirrors the broader Shaker Heights population, which was built as an affluent suburb and has diversified significantly over decades.
Fernway is embedded in a district undergoing material shifts. In November 2023, voters approved a major facilities and pre-K expansion referendum; the new Ludlow Early Learning Center opened in fall 2025, making universal pre-K available to district families. This is a lasting change for families with younger children and affects both property taxes and the buildings themselves. More recently, in November 2025, the district passed its first operating levy since a prior year, a permanent property-tax increase supporting day-to-day operations—a cost families should factor into the true cost of living in Shaker Heights.
The district has also eliminated tracking and consolidated honors- and core-level coursework into mixed-ability classes at the middle and high school, keeping AP, IB, and Dual Enrollment as exceptions. This detracking happened in 2020-21 and remains an active conversation among parents; it affects how advanced learners access accelerated instruction once they leave the elementary grades.
Shaker Heights itself is a planned, quiet, architecturally cohesive community where schools sit on separate neighborhood campuses—the nine original elementary schools actually gave their names to the nine neighborhoods. Housing values in the zip code are moderate for a Cleveland suburb, and the community has excellent transit connectivity to downtown via light rail. The Van Aken District provides walkable dining, retail, and a public park; outside that node and the adjacent Shaker Square area in Cleveland, daily life is residential. The city's population has been relatively steady, with recent development focused on redevelopment rather than expansion.
Parents considering Fernway should think of it as a solid neighborhood elementary school in a historic, transit-connected suburb where the broader district is investing in facilities and early learning, but where property taxes are rising to support operations. The school's test results show it is performing above the county median, and the small size means teachers likely know families well. The community skews educated and stable, though no data on specialized programs, advanced-learner pathways within the school, or specific support services was available to detail further.
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