Best Public Schools in Mackey, IN

Mackey, Indiana is a single-school town in this data set: it has 1 school, and that school is Wood Memorial Intermediate School, an elementary building serving grades 3–5 with about 150 students. It belongs to the East Gibson School Corporation, which ranks 212th of 374 Indiana districts (43rd percentile, 2 stars). Because this is the only school in town, there are no local peers to compare against — the useful comparisons are to the district, to the state, and to the school's own past. Notably, at grades 3–5 this building is the district statistically, since the district's grade-level results are identical to the school's.

Academically, the school is highly uneven from grade to grade. Fifth grade is the bright spot: math proficiency is 57.69% versus 42% statewide, ELA is 44.23% (state 42.2%), and social studies is 48.08% (state 47.2%) — so 5th grade beats the state in every subject. Third grade math is essentially at state level (51.35% vs. 51.9%), while 3rd grade ELA trails by about 14 points. Fourth grade is the clear weak point, sitting below the state in everything tested: ELA 30.77% vs. 42.2%, math 28.85% vs. 52%, and science 15.38% vs. 43.8% — a shortfall of about 28 points. As a result, the school's all-grades figures (34.75% ELA, 45.39% math) mask the fact that no single grade performs at that level across the board. Math overall outpaces the district (45.39% vs. 39.10%), while ELA trails it (34.75% vs. 38.97%).

Two things are worth keeping in mind. First, grades here are small — only a few dozen students each — so a handful of children moving in or out of proficiency can swing a grade-level rate by several points; one strong cohort and one struggling cohort can look dramatic without reflecting a change in teaching. Second, the school's most reliable strength is attendance: chronic absenteeism is 12.9%, better than the district (14.2%) and the state (16.7%), even though about two-thirds of students are economically disadvantaged (67.33% free/reduced lunch). The school's state ranking moved from 3 stars and the 52nd percentile in 2023–24 to 2 stars and the 41st percentile in 2025–26, holding flat since. Class sizes are small, with a student–teacher ratio of 11.1 and per-student spending of $12,833.