E Prep was founded by John Zitzner (entrepreneur) and Marshall Emerson III (educator, and Head of School) in 2006, in response to the need for new educational options for Cleveland families. E Prep is a public, tuition-free Ohio community school (also known as a charter school) authorized by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Opening in the Fall of 2006 with 90 six graders, E Prep has grown to serve over 300 students in grades 6 - 8.
Most E Prep students (89%) are from the city of Cleveland, while others come from East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Euclid, Garfield, and other nearby suburbs. E Prep is unique, and in fact, revolutionary in Cleveland, but it is not an experiment. It is modeled after many very successful urban schools across the country. Before opening the school, Marshall Emerson served in the Building Excellent Schools fellowship (
www.buildingexcellentschools.org) and studied as many as 40 high performing urban charter schools in cities such as Boston, New York, Newark, Washington, D.C. and Chicago. The features that make E Prep unique are actually the best-practices of the those high-performing schools.