Summary:
Pendleton, Indiana is home to three elementary schools — Pendleton Elementary School, Maple Ridge Elementary School, and East Elementary School — all belonging to the South Madison Com School Corp in the Madison County area, together serving 2,438 students in grades PK–6 (East serves K–6), and every one rated a 4-star school in a district that ranks 43rd of 374 statewide.
All three buildings perform well above Indiana norms, but each has its own strength. Pendleton Elementary School is the current-year academic leader, with the group's highest all-grades scores in English/language arts (54.24%), math (60.75%) and science (53.91%), plus the biggest rank jump to 198th of 1,015. East Elementary School has the best attendance (6.4% chronic absenteeism versus 16.7% statewide) and the strongest social studies and 6th-grade results. Maple Ridge Elementary School shows the steadiest improvement and holds the single highest score anywhere in the data — 84.13% in 3rd-grade math, roughly 32 points above the state. All three sit between the 73rd and 83rd percentile statewide.
Notably, differences in poverty rates, class size and per-student spending do not translate cleanly into achievement gaps: Maple Ridge Elementary School has the highest free/reduced lunch rate (45.8%) and largest classes (19.6:1) yet the strongest momentum, while the widest resource spread corresponds to only a 3.4-point composite difference. Attendance is the district's quiet superpower, with each school below half the state chronic absenteeism rate. Science is the subject to watch, where a 6.7-point spread has opened where none existed a year earlier.
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