Summary:
Families on the far east side of Indianapolis have a single public middle school option in this data set: James & Rosemary Phalen Leadership Academy Middle School, which serves grades 7 and 8 with 296 students at 4352 Mitthoeffer Road. The school is also its own district — James & Rosemary Phalen Leadership Academy Middle School — so district and school figures are identical, and there is no other local school here to compare against.
Two things stand out positively. First, attendance: chronic absenteeism is 9.6%, well below Indiana's 16.7% state rate. Second, the school is improving. Its state rank moved from 432 of 491 (12th percentile) in 2023–2024 to 399 of 486 (18th percentile) in 2025–2026, and all-grades ILEARN proficiency rose from 15.33% to 18.44% in ELA and from 12.41% to 14.34% in math. The school spends $15,353 per student, has a student-teacher ratio of 12.8, and 73.31% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Test scores, however, remain far below state averages. In 2025–2026, 7th-grade ELA was 21.6% (state 41.7%), 8th-grade ELA 15.92% (state 44%), 7th-grade math 22.58% (state 35.9%) and 8th-grade math 7.74% (state 34.2%) — the weakest area by far, at roughly a fifth of the state rate. Eighth grade trails 7th grade in both subjects, and the school holds a 1-star rating and sits in the bottom 18% of Indiana schools. Strong attendance has not yet translated into proficiency near state levels.
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