Summary:
MSD Decatur Township serves high school students at one institution, Decatur Central High School. This school is located in a district with a significant percentage of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, as indicated by the high rate of free/reduced lunch recipients.
Decatur Central High School, while achieving a strong four-year graduation rate of 88.4%, faces notable challenges in academic proficiency and student engagement. The school consistently ranks in the bottom quartile of Indiana high schools, holding a 1-star rating from SchoolDigger. A significant concern is the chronic absenteeism rate of 17.8%, which is considerably higher than ideal and can negatively impact student learning. Academically, the school's performance in Biology and SAT Mathematics is particularly concerning, falling well below both district and state averages. For instance, only 8.13% of students were proficient in SAT Mathematics in the 2024-2025 academic year, compared to the state average of 25.4%. While the school's spending per student is substantial at $11,783 and the student-teacher ratio is reasonable at 16.1, these resources may not be effectively translating into improved academic outcomes, especially in mathematics.
The academic performance of Decatur Central High School in SAT Evidence-based Reading and Writing and SAT Mathematics mirrors the overall performance trends within the MSD Decatur Township district for these assessments. This suggests that the challenges observed at the high school level are indicative of broader district-wide issues in these specific areas. The high percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch (75.59%) is an important contextual factor to consider when analyzing these outcomes and developing strategies for improvement.
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