CLEVELAND -- Preliminary findings from the Ohio Department of Education's annual school report card for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District were released Wednesday.

NewsChannel5's Debora Lee reported that the district dropped from continuous improvement to academic watch, essentially dropping from a "C" to a "D."

Last year's continuous improvement grade was the highest rating ever for the district.

Out of all the achievement tests given this year, only two -- 11th grade reading and writing -- met state requirements.

CMSD CEO Dr. Eugene Sanders said he was surprised and disappointed by the results.

"We make no excuses except that we did not get the job done at a level we anticipated," Sanders said.

The graduation rate is also below state standards, however, at 61.9 percent, it is higher than ever before.

Also, four schools -- the Early Childhood Development Center, Garrett Morgan School of Science, Riverside and John Hay -- are showing significant achievement and may get an "A" on the report card, which will officially be released next week.

The report card comes as students return to Cleveland's four single gender schools.

"It's important for parents and the community to know how our schools are doing because our schools are bringing forth our children. They're our future and if our schools aren't qualified to handle that we should know,' said parent Nancy Johnson.

The plan for improving the grade includes engaging parents with initiatives, improving attendance rates and throwing additional resources to the lowest performing schools.

"We will recommit ourselves to ensuring that 12 months from now we have significantly more positive results," said Sanders.