Summary:
Two public high schools serve grades 9–12 in the School City of Hammond, a district in northwestern Indiana: Hammond Central High School, with 1,814 students, and Morton Senior High School, with 1,446 students, for a combined enrollment of 3,260.
In a head-to-head comparison, Morton Senior has the better current school rank — 379 of 415, at the 9th percentile, versus Hammond Central at 385 of 415, at the 7th percentile — though both schools earned 0 stars. Morton also posts the stronger 2025–2026 SAT results, with 27.57% proficient in Evidence-based Reading and Writing and 2.94% in Mathematics, compared with 23.99% and 2.02% at Hammond Central. Morton has lower chronic absenteeism (32.5% vs 35.8%), a smaller student-teacher ratio (18.9 vs 21.1), and spends about $1,089 more per student ($11,910 vs $10,821). Hammond Central's relative strengths are its higher graduation rate (80.4% vs 76.0%), its larger enrollment, and the better 2025–2026 Biology result (10.1% vs 6.77%).
Parents should know that these differences are relative. Both schools sit inside a district ranked 351 of 374, at the 6th percentile with 0 stars, and both remain in the bottom tenth of Indiana high schools. The shared challenges are substantial: SAT Math proficiency is under 3% at both schools against a state rate of 25.6%; SAT reading and writing falls in the low-to-high 20s while the state is around 52–55%; chronic absenteeism runs roughly double the state's 16.7%; and graduation rates trail the state's 89.7%. About half of students at each school qualify for free or reduced lunch, so economic need is similar at both.
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