Teacher and School Leader Incentive Fund — Future Ready Cleveland
Author
Future Ready Cleveland
Published
May 16, 2026
Overview
This analysis supports the Teacher and School Leader Incentive Fund (TSL) grant application for Future Ready Cleveland. It uses ODE Statewide Educator data (2023, 2024, 2025) to characterize the educator workforce at four nested levels:
Statewide — Ohio overall (baseline)
Cuyahoga County — regional context
Cleveland — CMSD + Cleveland charter sector
Target charter networks — Breakthrough Public Schools and Concept Schools (by individual school, by network, and combined)
Each level reports headcount, FTE, compensation, experience, credentials, demographics, and year-over-year retention.
Executive summary — key findings for the grant
This is the headline evidence base for the Teacher and School Leader Incentive Fund (TSL) application: the four arguments the data supports, with the figures behind each. Full methodology and the detailed, sourced analysis follow in Sections 1–7 below. Retention figures cover the 2023→2024 and 2024→2025 transitions; compensation, experience, and credentials are 2025.
A note on the 2024→2025 Breakthrough figures
Two Breakthrough schools — Citizens Leadership Academy East and Village Preparatory School Willard — merged into other Breakthrough buildings and stop reporting under their own IRNs in 2025. Wherever a 2024→2025 retention figure for Breakthrough or the combined target networks is marked *, it is computed on the 3 continuing Breakthrough schools, so the merged schools’ 2024 teachers are not wrongly counted as attrition. The 2023→2024 figures use all 5 schools — all were reporting that year.
Retention gap — the central need
Teacher retention by transition (figures marked * use the 3 continuing Breakthrough schools — see note above):
Level
2023→2024
2024→2025
Statewide (Ohio)
90.8%
90.8%
CMSD
84.3%
85.1%
Other Cleveland charters (peer cohort)
60.6%
62.9%
Target networks combined
73.4%
72.4% *
Breakthrough Public Schools
72.6%
66.4% *
Concept Schools
75.0%
82.8%
Target-network teacher retention is ~72–73% in both transitions, trailing statewide (~91%) by roughly 18–19 percentage points and CMSD (~85%) by about 12–13 — roughly one teacher in four does not return year to year, against about one in eleven statewide. That is a stable, material retention gap and a legitimate basis for TSL investment. It is also roughly in line with — in fact somewhat better than — the broader Cleveland charter sector (~61–63%), which frames the gap as a sector-wide condition the traditional district does not face to the same degree, rather than a single-network failing. Within the target networks, Concept retains more strongly (75% then 83%) than Breakthrough (73% then 66%).
Compensation gap — a direct TSL lever
Median teacher salary, 2025 (full-time-equivalent; see Methodology):
Level
Median salary
% of statewide
CMSD
$87,508
116%
Statewide (Ohio)
$75,151
100%
Concept Schools
$51,000
68%
Target networks combined
$47,000
63%
Breakthrough Public Schools
$45,000
60%
Other Cleveland charters
$43,500
58%
A target-network teacher earns a median $47,000 — roughly $28,000 below the state median and about $40,000 below CMSD, the district these schools compete with most directly for talent. Compensation is a lever TSL funds can move directly, and the size of the gap explains why retention is so difficult.
Credential & experience profile
In 2025, about 36% of target-network teachers are in their first three years (statewide ~16%, CMSD ~13%), and only ~25% hold an advanced degree (statewide and CMSD both ~63%). The workforce is early-career and less credentialed — the profile expected under high churn. This substantiates a TSL design that ties performance-based compensation to growth, retention, and credential advancement: the need is structural, not incidental.
Demographic profile — the teacher–student gap
Target-network teachers (2025) are about 71% female / 29% male, and by race/ethnicity roughly 63% White — i.e., ~37% teachers of color. Their students, by contrast, are ~96% students of color and ~99.8% economically disadvantaged (8 schools, 3,190 students; TSL Data Requests.xlsx). That is a teacher–student diversity gap of roughly 60 percentage points — a concrete, fundable equity rationale: TSL incentives can support recruiting and retaining a teacher workforce that better reflects the students served. Section 4E gives the school-by-school breakdown.
Most useful artifacts
Section 4D (cross-level comparison) and the cross-level retention table are the single best exhibits for the application. Section 4E quantifies the teacher–student diversity gap; Section 5 quantifies the pay gap; Section 7 breaks retention out by years of experience; Section 6 documents data quality, including the merged-schools caveat above.
Methodology & data preparation
This section documents how the raw data was cleaned and what assumptions were made, so the figures in this report can be independently verified.
Data source
Three annual extracts from the Ohio Department of Education Staff Demographics and Jobs (Secured) report — school years 2023, 2024, and 2025. Each file covers all Ohio public-school employees (district and charter). Geographic and network slices are produced by filtering this statewide universe.
How the data was cleaned
Identifier columns (building_irn, district_irn, staff_state_id) are read as text so leading zeros are preserved — several target-school IRNs begin with zeros (e.g., 000858). If read as numbers those zeros are lost and the school no longer matches.
Salary (annualized_salary) is read as text, then $ and commas are stripped and the value coerced to a number. It is read as text deliberately: some years store it with $ formatting and others as a plain number, and mixing the two types would otherwise break the year-to-year merge.
One row per educator per year. In the raw data an educator appears once per job assignment. A teacher who also coaches has a teacher row plus separate coaching/advisor stipend rows — statewide there are ~355,000 assignment rows for ~269,000 people in 2025 alone. Counting raw rows would inflate headcount, FTE, and (because stipends are small-dollar) deflate median pay. The analysis therefore collapses to one row per educator per year, keeping each person’s primary assignment: their non-stipend role with the highest FTE, ties broken by salary.
Role groups. Every assignment is classified into one of eight role groups (Teacher, School leader, District/central admin, Instructional support, Student services, Paraprofessionals & aides, Operations & facilities, Coaching/extracurricular stipend) from the ODE position code.
How outliers were handled
Salary statistics use a cleaned pay figure (pay_clean) that excludes records unsuitable for a full-time-pay benchmark. A salary is set aside if it is missing, $0, below $15,000 (stipend-scale, not a wage), above $250,000 (likely a multi-district aggregation), or attached to a role below 0.5 FTE. Records with implausible experience (>50 years) or implied age (<18 or >80) are flagged. No record is deleted — every excluded or flagged record is counted and listed in Section 6 so reviewers can confirm each is a genuine data issue. All thresholds are set in one config block and can be adjusted.
Retention = an educator’s staff_state_id appearing in consecutive years. It is measured statewide; an educator who moves between Ohio schools still counts as “retained” at the statewide level but not necessarily within a smaller slice.
Approximate age = school year minus birth year (exact age unavailable).
Cleveland is defined as CMSD plus the Cleveland charter sector (51 schools); a CMSD-only view is available via a config switch.
Advanced degree = highest degree of Master’s, Doctorate, or Education Specialist.
Known limitations
Two Breakthrough schools merged. Citizens Leadership Academy East and Village Preparatory School Willard merged into other Breakthrough buildings and stop reporting under their own IRNs in 2025 (1–4 records vs. ~100 in earlier years). To avoid scoring their 2024 teachers as false attrition, every 2024→2025 retention figure for Breakthrough and the combined target networks is computed on the 3 continuing Breakthrough schools (marked * throughout this report). The 2023→2024 figures use all 5 schools — all were reporting that year. Section 4 traces the merged-school staff; Section 6 surfaces the record counts.
This dataset describes the educator workforce only. Student demographics, enrollment, and achievement come from separate sources and are not analyzed here.
Setup
Code
# ---- libraries ----library(tidyverse) # dplyr, ggplot2, readr, tidyr, stringr, forcatslibrary(janitor) # clean_names(), tabyl()library(scales) # dollar(), percent(), comma()library(gt) # publication-quality tableslibrary(knitr) # kable() as fallbacklibrary(readxl) # read_excel() — student demographics workbook# ---- options ----options(scipen =999)theme_set(theme_minimal(base_size =11))# In the public (masked) build, hide all code so the report reads as a# finished document and no local file paths are exposed. The internal# build (mask_pii = FALSE) keeps the code visible.knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo =!params$mask_pii)
staff_assignments is the assignment-level table: one row per job assignment. An educator can appear several times in a year (a teacher who also coaches has a teacher row and coaching/advisor stipend rows).
Collapse to one row per educator per year
This is the critical dedup step. Each educator can hold several assignment rows; without collapsing, headcount, FTE, and salary all over-count. staff keeps each educator’s primary assignment — their non-stipend job with the highest FTE (ties broken by salary). Stipend-only people (whose sole assignment is a coaching/advisor stipend) are dropped from the workforce.
Reusable helpers
Note
Experience data in 2023: the 2023 ODE file does not include a teaching- experience field. In the workforce-summary tables that follow, the median experience and % early career values are blank for the 2023 row. All other 2023 figures are complete.
1. Statewide analysis
Statewide workforce — 2023–2025
slice
school_year
total_staff
total_teachers
total_leaders
total_fte
teacher_fte
median_teacher_sal
mean_teacher_sal
median_exp_yrs
pct_early_career
pct_advanced_deg
Statewide (Ohio)
2023
246,057
110,791
5747
233,718
108,414
$70,464
$69,770
NA
NaN
62.9%
Statewide (Ohio)
2024
248,865
111,363
5943
236,169
108,976
$72,622
$71,815
12
15.9%
63.0%
Statewide (Ohio)
2025
248,553
111,318
5985
235,557
108,907
$75,151
$74,345
12
16.1%
63.1%
Statewide compensation trend (teachers)
Statewide experience pyramid (2025 teachers)
Statewide retention
slice
from_year
to_year
teachers_in_y0
retained_in_y1
retention_rate
attrition_rate
Statewide
2023
2024
110,791
101,511
91.6%
8.4%
Statewide
2024
2025
111,363
102,139
91.7%
8.3%
Statewide workforce by role type
Every educator is assigned one of eight role groups (see the role_group logic in the cleaning chunk). role_breakdown() can be applied to any slice of staff — swap staff for cuyahoga, cleveland_geo, target, etc.
Statewide workforce by role group (2025)
role_group
n_staff
total_fte
median_salary
median_exp_yrs
pct_advanced_deg
pct_of_staff
Teacher
111,318
108,907
$75,151
12
63.1%
44.8%
Operations & facilities
46,924
40,836
$31,360
0
0.4%
18.9%
Paraprofessionals & aides
44,347
41,990
$29,111
0
1.8%
17.8%
Instructional support
18,130
17,231
$73,358
10
66.7%
7.3%
Student services / related
11,822
10,933
$67,694
4
62.1%
4.8%
District/central admin
10,027
9,740
$92,606
6
51.8%
4.0%
School leader
5,985
5,920
$102,177
11
90.7%
2.4%
Why the dedup matters — assignment rows vs. educators
Raw assignment rows vs. deduplicated educators (2025)
All headcount / FTE / pay metrics use the deduplicated table
view
records
teacher_records
Assignment rows (raw)
355,292
120,798
Educators (primary job only)
248,553
111,318
2. Cuyahoga County
Cuyahoga workforce summary
Cuyahoga County workforce — 2023–2025
slice
school_year
total_staff
total_teachers
total_leaders
total_fte
teacher_fte
median_teacher_sal
mean_teacher_sal
median_exp_yrs
pct_early_career
pct_advanced_deg
Cuyahoga County
2023
25,657
10,412
661
24,308
10,249
$83,989
$78,049
NA
NaN
67.8%
Cuyahoga County
2024
25,682
10,297
693
24,386
10,156
$85,599
$79,845
13
14.8%
66.6%
Cuyahoga County
2025
25,333
10,279
690
24,111
10,130
$87,508
$81,912
13
16.0%
65.9%
Cuyahoga: top employing districts (2025)
Top 20 Cuyahoga districts by staff headcount (2025)
district
n
Cleveland Municipal
5771
Parma City
1573
Cleveland Heights-University Heights City
999
Strongsville City
901
Berea City
835
Euclid City
790
Shaker Heights City
785
Lakewood City
771
Solon City
686
Esc Of Northeast Ohio
679
Mayfield City
660
Bedford City
617
South Euclid-Lyndhurst City
614
North Olmsted City
571
Westlake City
560
North Royalton City
558
Garfield Heights City Schools
506
Olmsted Falls City
484
Maple Heights City
469
Brecksville-Broadview Heights City
459
Cuyahoga retention
slice
from_year
to_year
teachers_in_y0
retained_in_y1
retention_rate
attrition_rate
Cuyahoga County
2023
2024
10,412
9,041
86.8%
13.2%
Cuyahoga County
2024
2025
10,297
9,055
87.9%
12.1%
3. Cleveland
Cleveland workforce summary
Cleveland workforce — CMSD vs. CMSD + charters
slice
school_year
total_staff
total_teachers
total_leaders
total_fte
teacher_fte
median_teacher_sal
mean_teacher_sal
median_exp_yrs
pct_early_career
pct_advanced_deg
CMSD only
2023
6,239
2,195
194
6,111
2,187
$82,492
$79,635
NA
NaN
64.6%
CMSD only
2024
6,073
2,167
183
5,964
2,162
$82,751
$81,579
11
12.6%
63.6%
CMSD only
2025
5,771
2,086
170
5,677
2,081
$87,508
$85,782
11
12.5%
63.5%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
2023
7,937
2,996
284
7,527
2,980
$68,153
$69,980
NA
NaN
53.5%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
2024
7,874
2,986
279
7,470
2,970
$69,516
$71,670
8
20.3%
52.1%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
2025
7,405
2,892
256
7,106
2,876
$78,105
$74,843
9
21.6%
52.6%
Cleveland retention (CMSD vs CMSD + charters)
slice
from_year
to_year
teachers_in_y0
retained_in_y1
retention_rate
attrition_rate
CMSD only
2023
2024
2,195
1,932
88.0%
12.0%
CMSD only
2024
2025
2,167
1,874
86.5%
13.5%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
2023
2024
2,996
2,462
82.2%
17.8%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
2024
2025
2,986
2,387
79.9%
20.1%
Cleveland demographics — teachers vs. student-serving region (2025)
Cleveland teacher demographics (2025)
slice
year
n_teachers
pct_female
pct_male
pct_white
pct_black
pct_hispanic
pct_asian
pct_multi_other
CMSD only
2025
2,086
75.3%
24.7%
68.2%
23.5%
95.4%
2.4%
1.2%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
2025
2,892
74.3%
25.7%
62.5%
26.1%
92.3%
2.7%
1.7%
3.5 Cleveland charter sector context
Before zooming into the two target networks, this section frames the broader Cleveland charter sector so the target networks have a peer cohort to compare against. 51 charter schools operate in Cleveland in 2024–25; the 8 target schools are part of this universe.
Cleveland charter sector — schools by operator family (2024-25)
operator_family
n_schools
pct
Accel/Constellation family
26
51.0%
Other named operator
11
21.6%
Independent / no operator listed
6
11.8%
Breakthrough
5
9.8%
Concept
3
5.9%
Charter sector by operator family
Cleveland charter workforce — by operator family
slice
school_year
total_staff
total_teachers
total_leaders
total_fte
teacher_fte
median_teacher_sal
mean_teacher_sal
median_exp_yrs
pct_early_career
pct_advanced_deg
Accel/Constellation family
2023
864
307
39
591
303
$40,000
$40,053
NA
NaN
17.3%
Accel/Constellation family
2024
968
342
41
685
336
$41,000
$41,441
2
50.9%
13.2%
Accel/Constellation family
2025
816
350
38
630
345
$42,000
$43,182
2
60.3%
16.9%
Breakthrough
2023
251
146
16
248
145
$43,000
$43,684
NA
NaN
21.2%
Breakthrough
2024
276
161
16
274
161
$43,000
$44,759
4
31.7%
20.5%
Breakthrough
2025
182
92
10
180
91
$45,000
$47,353
4
31.5%
15.2%
Concept
2023
91
72
9
91
72
$52,250
$52,315
NA
NaN
27.8%
Concept
2024
81
65
10
81
65
$52,000
$52,194
4
36.9%
26.2%
Concept
2025
94
76
10
94
76
$51,000
$50,374
4
42.1%
36.8%
Independent / no operator listed
2023
191
108
12
188
108
$43,771
$42,158
NA
NaN
28.7%
Independent / no operator listed
2024
175
86
10
172
86
$44,561
$43,463
5
29.1%
34.9%
Independent / no operator listed
2025
187
92
8
184
92
$45,000
$45,057
5
34.8%
33.7%
Other named operator
2023
301
168
14
296
166
$44,000
$44,625
NA
NaN
31.0%
Other named operator
2024
301
165
19
293
161
$45,385
$47,895
5
34.5%
32.1%
Other named operator
2025
355
196
20
340
192
$46,000
$48,000
5
31.1%
33.7%
Retention by operator family
Teacher retention by Cleveland charter operator family
slice
from_year
to_year
teachers_in_y0
retained_in_y1
retention_rate
attrition_rate
Accel/Constellation family
2023
2024
307
174
56.7%
43.3%
Breakthrough
2023
2024
146
105
71.9%
28.1%
Concept
2023
2024
72
54
75.0%
25.0%
Independent / no operator listed
2023
2024
108
60
55.6%
44.4%
Other named operator
2023
2024
168
112
66.7%
33.3%
Accel/Constellation family
2024
2025
342
188
55.0%
45.0%
Breakthrough
2024
2025
161
74
46.0%
54.0%
Concept
2024
2025
65
53
81.5%
18.5%
Independent / no operator listed
2024
2025
86
61
70.9%
29.1%
Other named operator
2024
2025
165
113
68.5%
31.5%
4. Target charter networks (Breakthrough + Concept) — PRIMARY FOCUS
This is the highest-priority section for the TSL application. We analyze the 8 target schools three ways: combined, by network, and by school.
character(0)
4A. Combined (both networks)
Combined target schools — workforce summary
slice
school_year
total_staff
total_teachers
total_leaders
total_fte
teacher_fte
median_teacher_sal
mean_teacher_sal
median_exp_yrs
pct_early_career
pct_advanced_deg
Target networks (combined)
2023
342
218
25
339
217
$45,000
$46,574
NA
NaN
23.4%
Target networks (combined)
2024
357
226
26
355
226
$45,000
$47,128
4
33.2%
22.1%
Target networks (combined)
2025
276
168
20
274
167
$47,000
$48,816
4
36.3%
25.0%
slice
from_year
to_year
teachers_in_y0
retained_in_y1
retention_rate
attrition_rate
Target combined
2023
2024
218
159
72.9%
27.1%
Target combined
2024
2025
226
127
56.2%
43.8%
4B. By network
Workforce summary — by network
slice
school_year
total_staff
total_teachers
total_leaders
total_fte
teacher_fte
median_teacher_sal
mean_teacher_sal
median_exp_yrs
pct_early_career
pct_advanced_deg
Breakthrough Public Schools
2023
251
146
16
248
145
$43,000
$43,684
NA
NaN
21.2%
Breakthrough Public Schools
2024
276
161
16
274
161
$43,000
$44,759
4
31.7%
20.5%
Breakthrough Public Schools
2025
182
92
10
180
91
$45,000
$47,353
4
31.5%
15.2%
Concept Schools
2023
91
72
9
91
72
$52,250
$52,315
NA
NaN
27.8%
Concept Schools
2024
81
65
10
81
65
$52,000
$52,194
4
36.9%
26.2%
Concept Schools
2025
94
76
10
94
76
$51,000
$50,374
4
42.1%
36.8%
Network retention
This is within-network retention: a teacher counts as retained if their staff_state_id reappears at any school in the same network the next year — so a teacher who transfers between two Breakthrough buildings is retained, not lost. (retention_table() does this automatically because it is given the whole network slice.)
Note
The 2024→2025 Breakthrough figure (marked *) uses only the 3 continuing Breakthrough schools. The two schools that merged into other buildings stop reporting in 2025, so their 2024 teachers are excluded rather than wrongly scored as attrition. The 2023→2024 figure uses all 5 schools — all were reporting that year. See “Tracking the two merged Breakthrough schools” below.
Within-network teacher retention
* 2024→2025 uses the 3 continuing Breakthrough schools
slice
from_year
to_year
teachers_in_y0
retained_in_y1
retention_rate
attrition_rate
Breakthrough Public Schools *
2023
2024
146
105
71.9%
28.1%
Breakthrough Public Schools *
2024
2025
109
74
67.9%
32.1%
Concept Schools
2023
2024
72
54
75.0%
25.0%
Concept Schools
2024
2025
65
53
81.5%
18.5%
Network compensation comparison
Network experience profile (2025)
4C. By school
Workforce summary — by school
slice
school_year
total_staff
total_teachers
total_leaders
total_fte
teacher_fte
median_teacher_sal
mean_teacher_sal
median_exp_yrs
pct_early_career
pct_advanced_deg
Citizens Academy Southeast
2023
64
24
5
64
24
$38,500
$40,018
NA
NaN
29.2%
Citizens Academy Southeast
2024
69
28
5
69
28
$41,000
$40,714
2.5
50.0%
25.0%
Citizens Academy Southeast
2025
67
24
6
66
23
$45,000
$45,122
3.0
45.8%
16.7%
Citizens Leadership Academy East
2023
41
29
2
41
29
$38,000
$39,421
NA
NaN
20.7%
Citizens Leadership Academy East
2024
40
25
2
40
25
$39,928
$40,522
3.0
28.0%
24.0%
Citizens Leadership Academy East
2025
4
4
0
4
4
$49,550
$55,900
5.5
0.0%
25.0%
Horizon Science Acad Cleveland
2023
35
28
3
35
28
$56,750
$56,259
NA
NaN
35.7%
Horizon Science Acad Cleveland
2024
31
25
3
31
25
$56,000
$56,530
6.0
24.0%
36.0%
Horizon Science Acad Cleveland
2025
35
27
4
35
27
$54,000
$55,259
5.0
37.0%
40.7%
Horizon Science Academy-Cleveland Middle School
2023
28
23
2
28
23
$50,000
$50,083
NA
NaN
26.1%
Horizon Science Academy-Cleveland Middle School
2024
25
20
3
25
20
$50,170
$49,867
3.0
40.0%
20.0%
Horizon Science Academy-Cleveland Middle School
2025
31
25
3
31
25
$48,000
$47,666
4.0
40.0%
36.0%
Horizon Science Academy-Denison Middle School
2023
28
21
4
28
21
$47,500
$49,500
NA
NaN
19.0%
Horizon Science Academy-Denison Middle School
2024
25
20
4
25
20
$48,000
$49,100
2.5
50.0%
20.0%
Horizon Science Academy-Denison Middle School
2025
28
24
3
28
24
$47,000
$47,700
2.5
50.0%
33.3%
Village Preparatory School Cliffs
2023
53
33
3
52
32
$45,000
$45,566
NA
NaN
24.2%
Village Preparatory School Cliffs
2024
64
42
3
64
42
$45,000
$46,158
6.0
21.4%
14.3%
Village Preparatory School Cliffs
2025
54
32
3
54
32
$45,250
$47,646
7.0
25.0%
9.4%
Village Preparatory School Willard
2023
45
29
5
44
29
$44,000
$45,498
NA
NaN
17.2%
Village Preparatory School Willard
2024
42
27
5
41
27
$45,900
$47,432
4.0
33.3%
22.2%
Village Preparatory School Woodland Hills
2023
48
31
1
47
31
$45,000
$46,988
NA
NaN
16.1%
Village Preparatory School Woodland Hills
2024
61
39
1
60
39
$44,013
$46,775
4.0
30.8%
20.5%
Village Preparatory School Woodland Hills
2025
57
32
1
56
32
$45,000
$47,514
4.5
31.2%
18.8%
School-level retention
A school that merges or closes cannot have a school-level retention rate for the following year — there is no school for staff to return to. The two merged Breakthrough schools are therefore dropped from the 2024→2025 row (their 2023→2024 row is kept and is valid). This is not counted as attrition; those teachers are tracked at the network level above and in the next subsection.
School-level teacher retention
Merged schools excluded from the 2024→2025 transition
slice
from_year
to_year
teachers_in_y0
retained_in_y1
retention_rate
attrition_rate
Citizens Academy Southeast
2023
2024
24
18
75.0%
25.0%
Citizens Academy Southeast
2024
2025
28
16
57.1%
42.9%
Citizens Leadership Academy East
2023
2024
29
17
58.6%
41.4%
Horizon Science Acad Cleveland
2023
2024
28
23
82.1%
17.9%
Horizon Science Acad Cleveland
2024
2025
25
22
88.0%
12.0%
Horizon Science Academy-Cleveland Middle School
2023
2024
23
16
69.6%
30.4%
Horizon Science Academy-Cleveland Middle School
2024
2025
20
16
80.0%
20.0%
Horizon Science Academy-Denison Middle School
2023
2024
21
15
71.4%
28.6%
Horizon Science Academy-Denison Middle School
2024
2025
20
15
75.0%
25.0%
Village Preparatory School Cliffs
2023
2024
33
26
78.8%
21.2%
Village Preparatory School Cliffs
2024
2025
42
26
61.9%
38.1%
Village Preparatory School Willard
2023
2024
29
19
65.5%
34.5%
Village Preparatory School Woodland Hills
2023
2024
31
25
80.6%
19.4%
Village Preparatory School Woodland Hills
2024
2025
39
32
82.1%
17.9%
School-level headcount trend
Tracking the two merged Breakthrough schools
Citizens Leadership Academy East and Village Preparatory School Willard merged into other Breakthrough buildings; their IRNs effectively stop reporting in 2025. This table follows every 2024 staff member of those two schools and shows where they appear in 2025 — matched first by staff_state_id, then by name as a backup for any changed IDs. If the merge moved staff within the network, they should surface as “Other Breakthrough school.”
Where the 2024 staff of the two merged schools appear in 2025
Matched by staff ID, then by name as a backup
destination
Other staff
Teachers
Not found in 2025 data
26
46
Other Ohio public school
3
5
Concept (other target network)
0
1
Other Breakthrough school
1
0
If most staff land in “Not found in 2025 data” rather than “Other Breakthrough school,” the merge is a records event that has not yet flowed into the staffing file — not a transfer of people we can trace. This is why every 2024→2025 retention figure for Breakthrough and the combined target networks excludes these two schools and uses the 3 continuing Breakthrough schools instead.
4C-roles. Role composition of the target networks
Target networks — staff by role group (2025)
year
role_group
n_staff
total_fte
median_salary
median_exp_yrs
pct_advanced_deg
pct_of_staff
Breakthrough Public Schools
2025
Teacher
92
91
$45,000
4
15.2%
50.5%
2025
Instructional support
41
41
$38,000
2
24.4%
22.5%
2025
Paraprofessionals & aides
22
22
$25,387
0
13.6%
12.1%
2025
District/central admin
14
13
$56,000
4
21.4%
7.7%
2025
School leader
10
10
$57,000
6
40.0%
5.5%
2025
Operations & facilities
2
2
$27,096
10
0.0%
1.1%
2025
Student services / related
1
1
$63,257
0
100.0%
0.5%
Concept Schools
2025
Teacher
76
76
$51,000
4
36.8%
80.9%
2025
School leader
10
10
$67,000
8
20.0%
10.6%
2025
Instructional support
7
7
$45,000
1
42.9%
7.4%
2025
Paraprofessionals & aides
1
1
$47,000
1
0.0%
1.1%
Target combined
2025
Teacher
168
167
$47,000
4
25.0%
60.9%
2025
Instructional support
48
48
$38,000
2
27.1%
17.4%
2025
Paraprofessionals & aides
23
23
$25,444
0
13.0%
8.3%
2025
School leader
20
20
$67,000
7
30.0%
7.2%
2025
District/central admin
14
13
$56,000
4
21.4%
5.1%
2025
Operations & facilities
2
2
$27,096
10
0.0%
0.7%
2025
Student services / related
1
1
$63,257
0
100.0%
0.4%
4D. Cross-level comparison (the headline table)
This is the table that will likely anchor the grant narrative.
2025 workforce — all geographic and network levels
Headline comparison for TSL narrative
slice
school_year
total_staff
total_teachers
total_leaders
total_fte
teacher_fte
median_teacher_sal
mean_teacher_sal
median_exp_yrs
pct_early_career
pct_advanced_deg
Statewide (Ohio)
2025
248,553
111,318
5985
235,557
108,907
$75,151
$74,345
12
16.1%
63.1%
Cuyahoga County
2025
25,333
10,279
690
24,111
10,130
$87,508
$81,912
13
16.0%
65.9%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
2025
7,405
2,892
256
7,106
2,876
$78,105
$74,843
9
21.6%
52.6%
CMSD
2025
5,771
2,086
170
5,677
2,081
$87,508
$85,782
11
12.5%
63.5%
Other Cleveland charters (peer cohort)
2025
1,358
638
66
1,154
629
$43,500
$44,940
3
47.6%
24.5%
Target networks combined
2025
276
168
20
274
167
$47,000
$48,816
4
36.3%
25.0%
Breakthrough Public Schools
2025
182
92
10
180
91
$45,000
$47,353
4
31.5%
15.2%
Concept Schools
2025
94
76
10
94
76
$51,000
$50,374
4
42.1%
36.8%
Cross-level retention comparison
Teacher retention across all levels
* 2024→2025 uses the 3 continuing Breakthrough schools
slice
from_year
to_year
teachers_in_y0
retained_in_y1
retention_rate
attrition_rate
Breakthrough Public Schools *
2023
2024
146
105
71.9%
28.1%
CMSD
2023
2024
2,195
1,932
88.0%
12.0%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
2023
2024
2,996
2,462
82.2%
17.8%
Concept Schools
2023
2024
72
54
75.0%
25.0%
Cuyahoga County
2023
2024
10,412
9,041
86.8%
13.2%
Other Cleveland charters (peer cohort)
2023
2024
583
353
60.5%
39.5%
Statewide
2023
2024
110,791
101,511
91.6%
8.4%
Target combined *
2023
2024
218
159
72.9%
27.1%
Breakthrough Public Schools *
2024
2025
109
74
67.9%
32.1%
CMSD
2024
2025
2,167
1,874
86.5%
13.5%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
2024
2025
2,934
2,387
81.4%
18.6%
Concept Schools
2024
2025
65
53
81.5%
18.5%
Cuyahoga County
2024
2025
10,245
9,053
88.4%
11.6%
Other Cleveland charters (peer cohort)
2024
2025
593
377
63.6%
36.4%
Statewide
2024
2025
111,311
102,135
91.8%
8.2%
Target combined *
2024
2025
174
127
73.0%
27.0%
4E. Teacher workforce vs. student body
Student demographics for the 8 target schools come from TSL Data Requests.xlsx (enrollment, economic disadvantage, students of color, English learners, students with disabilities). This is the comparison that frames the workforce-diversity narrative.
Student body of the 8 target schools (2024–25)
Source: TSL Data Requests.xlsx
School
Operator
Enrollment
% Econ. disadvantaged
% Students of color
% English learners
% SWDs
Citizens Leadership Academy East
Breakthrough Public Schools
343
99.4%
97.4%
0.0%
12.2%
Citizens Academy Southeast
Breakthrough Public Schools
588
99.6%
98.3%
0.0%
16.5%
Village Preparatory School Cliffs
Breakthrough Public Schools
495
99.4%
97.9%
0.0%
17.5%
Village Preparatory School Willard
Breakthrough Public Schools
432
100.0%
93.5%
6.9%
20.5%
Village Preparatory School Woodland Hills
Breakthrough Public Schools
492
100.0%
98.2%
0.0%
17.2%
Horizon Science Acad Cleveland
Concept Schools
290
100.0%
95.2%
0.0%
15.8%
Horizon Science Academy-Cleveland Middle School
Concept Schools
274
100.0%
96.7%
0.0%
14.0%
Horizon Science Academy-Denison Middle School
Concept Schools
276
100.0%
89.9%
13.4%
11.7%
Overall Coalition
NA
3,190
99.8%
96.3%
2.1%
16.1%
The teacher–student diversity gap
Teacher–student diversity gap
2025 teachers vs. 2024–25 student enrollment
Network
% Students of color
% Teachers of color
Gap (pct. points)
Target combined
96.3%
36.9%
59.4%
Breakthrough Public Schools
97.2%
40.2%
57.0%
Concept Schools
93.9%
32.9%
61.0%
5. Drill-downs to support the narrative
Compensation gaps vs. statewide
Median teacher salary vs. statewide benchmark
slice
school_year
median_teacher_sal
statewide_med
gap_vs_state
pct_of_state
Breakthrough Public Schools
2023
$43,000
$70,464
−$27,464
61.0%
Breakthrough Public Schools
2024
$43,000
$72,622
−$29,622
59.2%
Breakthrough Public Schools
2025
$45,000
$75,151
−$30,151
59.9%
Cleveland
2023
$68,153
$70,464
−$2,311
96.7%
Cleveland
2024
$69,516
$72,622
−$3,106
95.7%
Cleveland
2025
$78,105
$75,151
$2,954
103.9%
Concept Schools
2023
$52,250
$70,464
−$18,214
74.2%
Concept Schools
2024
$52,000
$72,622
−$20,622
71.6%
Concept Schools
2025
$51,000
$75,151
−$24,151
67.9%
Cuyahoga
2023
$83,989
$70,464
$13,525
119.2%
Cuyahoga
2024
$85,599
$72,622
$12,977
117.9%
Cuyahoga
2025
$87,508
$75,151
$12,357
116.4%
Target combined
2023
$45,000
$70,464
−$25,464
63.9%
Target combined
2024
$45,000
$72,622
−$27,622
62.0%
Target combined
2025
$47,000
$75,151
−$28,151
62.5%
Credential gap (% with advanced degree)
Early-career concentration
6. Data quality checks
Missingness across analytic columns
column
pct_missing
staff_author_exper_years_count
33.1%
annualized_salary
0.2%
birth_year
0.0%
fte
0.0%
highest_degree
0.0%
gender
0.0%
race_or_ethnicity
0.0%
Outlier review — records to verify
The config-block thresholds (salary_floor, salary_cap, min_fte_for_pay, exp_max_plausible, age bounds) are applied automatically to pay statistics. The tables below count and list the records they affect, so you can confirm they are genuine data issues — not real educators wrongly excluded.
Most important: with only 8 target schools, one bad record can move a network median. Review the final table individually before citing any target-network number.
Salary outliers (2025 assignment rows)
Most below-floor rows are coaching/advisor stipends
Salary outlier (2025 assignment rows)
n_records
Salary missing (NA)
15,637
Salary = $0
230
Salary below floor (<$15k)
96,625
Salary above cap (>$250k)
15
FTE / age / experience outlier (2025)
n_records
FTE = 0
2,675
FTE > 1.0 (single assignment)
31
Experience > 50 yrs
69
Approx age < 18
41
Approx age > 80
368
Flagged records inside the 8 target schools
Flagged records in the 8 target schools
Counts by flag type — individual records reviewed internally
operator
flag
n_records
Breakthrough Public Schools
Missing / zero salary
38
Breakthrough Public Schools
Teacher salary below floor
28
Concept Schools
Teacher salary below floor
3
7. Teacher retention by years of experience
Teacher retention and attrition broken out by years of experience (measured in the base year, 2024), for eight levels: statewide, Cuyahoga County, Cleveland, CMSD, the Cleveland charter sector, the target networks combined, and each target network.
Note
This analysis covers the 2024→2025 transition only. The 2023 data file does not contain a teaching-experience field, so the 2023→2024 transition cannot be broken out by experience. Plain retention (not split by experience) for 2023→2024 remains available in Sections 4 and 6.
Experience bands: 1 yr or less, 2, 3, 4–5, 6–7, 8–10, 11–20, and 21+ years.
* Breakthrough Public Schools and Target combined exclude Citizens Leadership Academy East and Village Preparatory School Willard — the two schools that merged into other Breakthrough buildings and do not report in 2025. Their 2024→2025 figures are based on the 3 continuing Breakthrough schools only (Citizens Academy Southeast, Village Prep Cliffs, Village Prep Woodland Hills).
Retention & attrition by experience band
Teacher retention & attrition by years of experience
2024→2025 transition
Experience (2024)
Teachers
Retained to 2025
Left by 2025
Statewide (Ohio)
1 yr or less
12,455
84.2%
15.8%
2 yrs
5,296
88.4%
11.6%
3 yrs
3,864
90.1%
9.9%
4–5 yrs
7,538
90.7%
9.3%
6–7 yrs
7,506
92.3%
7.7%
8–10 yrs
12,724
93.5%
6.5%
11–20 yrs
30,916
95.1%
4.9%
21+ yrs
31,064
91.5%
8.5%
Cuyahoga County
1 yr or less
975
74.4%
25.6%
2 yrs
544
77.4%
22.6%
3 yrs
349
79.4%
20.6%
4–5 yrs
622
82.6%
17.4%
6–7 yrs
826
87.3%
12.7%
8–10 yrs
1,125
90.3%
9.7%
11–20 yrs
2,603
93.6%
6.4%
21+ yrs
3,253
90.5%
9.5%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
1 yr or less
346
66.2%
33.8%
2 yrs
259
68.3%
31.7%
3 yrs
151
64.9%
35.1%
4–5 yrs
212
68.4%
31.6%
6–7 yrs
393
81.9%
18.1%
8–10 yrs
377
85.9%
14.1%
11–20 yrs
333
82.0%
18.0%
21+ yrs
915
89.5%
10.5%
CMSD
1 yr or less
128
77.3%
22.7%
2 yrs
146
74.7%
25.3%
3 yrs
73
74.0%
26.0%
4–5 yrs
96
80.2%
19.8%
6–7 yrs
317
86.4%
13.6%
8–10 yrs
315
89.8%
10.2%
11–20 yrs
215
85.6%
14.4%
21+ yrs
877
90.5%
9.5%
Cleveland charter sector
1 yr or less
218
58.7%
41.3%
2 yrs
113
59.3%
40.7%
3 yrs
78
56.4%
43.6%
4–5 yrs
116
57.8%
42.2%
6–7 yrs
76
63.2%
36.8%
8–10 yrs
62
66.1%
33.9%
11–20 yrs
118
74.6%
25.4%
21+ yrs
38
65.8%
34.2%
Target combined *
1 yr or less
30
73.3%
26.7%
2 yrs
29
79.3%
20.7%
3 yrs
14
71.4%
28.6%
4–5 yrs
30
66.7%
33.3%
6–7 yrs
25
68.0%
32.0%
8–10 yrs
17
76.5%
23.5%
11–20 yrs
25
80.0%
20.0%
21+ yrs
4
50.0%
50.0%
Concept Schools
1 yr or less
15
80.0%
20.0%
2 yrs
9
77.8%
22.2%
3 yrs
5
80.0%
20.0%
4–5 yrs
12
83.3%
16.7%
6–7 yrs
7
85.7%
14.3%
8–10 yrs
4
75.0%
25.0%
11–20 yrs
10
90.0%
10.0%
21+ yrs
3
66.7%
33.3%
Breakthrough Public Schools *
1 yr or less
15
66.7%
33.3%
2 yrs
20
80.0%
20.0%
3 yrs
9
66.7%
33.3%
4–5 yrs
18
55.6%
44.4%
6–7 yrs
18
61.1%
38.9%
8–10 yrs
13
76.9%
23.1%
11–20 yrs
15
73.3%
26.7%
21+ yrs
1
0.0%
100.0%
* Breakthrough and Target combined use the 3 continuing Breakthrough schools (see note above).
Retention by experience — all levels
Early-career attrition — surviving past Year 3 and Year 5
Of the teachers employed in 2024, what share did not return in 2025 — focused on early-career teachers. “Within first 3 years” = 3 or fewer years of recorded experience in 2024; “within first 5 years” = 5 or fewer.
Early-career teacher attrition (2024→2025)
Share of early-career teachers who did not return
Level
Teachers (first 3 yrs)
% left within 3 yrs
Teachers (first 5 yrs)
% left within 5 yrs
Statewide (Ohio)
21,615
13.7%
29,153
12.6%
Cuyahoga County
1,868
23.8%
2,490
22.2%
Cleveland (CMSD + charters)
756
33.3%
968
33.0%
CMSD
347
24.5%
443
23.5%
Cleveland charter sector
409
41.6%
525
41.7%
Target combined *
73
24.7%
103
27.2%
Concept Schools
29
20.7%
41
19.5%
Breakthrough Public Schools *
44
27.3%
62
32.3%
End of detailed analysis. The grant-narrative summary appears at the top of this report.
