Summary:
Charter School of the Dunes is the only school in this area — a single elementary-classified charter school serving grades PK–8 with 836 students at 7300 East Melton Rd in Gary, Indiana — and it operates as its own district, Charter School of the Dunes. Because there are no middle, high, or alternative schools counted in this area, there is no other local school to compare it against; the meaningful comparison is with Indiana state averages and with the school's own results across grades and subjects.
Academically, the school trails the state in every reported subject and grade. All-grades proficiency is 15.13% in English Language Arts, 10.69% in Math, 10.64% in Science, and 13.75% in 5th grade Social Studies, with grade-level gaps to the state generally running about 12 to 38 percentage points. Math is the weakest subject overall, and 7th grade Math is the lowest single result at 5.68%. The relative bright spot is 8th grade ELA at 32.05% — the highest proficiency rate reported for the school — though that still falls 11.95 percentage points below the state's 44%. Other comparatively stronger results include 7th grade ELA at 19.32% and 4th grade Math at 18.46%.
Context matters here. Chronic absenteeism is 30.8%, nearly 1.8 times the state rate of 16.7%, and 67.46% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Per-student spending is $13,255, and the student-teacher ratio is 17.7. The school ranks 972 of 1,015 Indiana schools (4th percentile, 0 stars) and 356 of 374 districts (5th percentile, 0 stars). There are modest signs of improvement from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026: ELA rose 2.01 points, Math 3.78 points, Science 0.64 points, and 5th grade Social Studies 7.60 points — progress, but from a very low base.
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