Summary:
Middle-level education in Merrillville Community School Corp is provided by two schools serving about 1,666 students across grades 5 through 8: Pierce Middle School (grades 7–8, 878 students) and Merrillville Intermediate School (grades 5–6, 788 students). The district carries a 2-star rating and ranks 256th of 374 Indiana districts, at the 32nd percentile — a district-level measure that applies to both schools equally. Because the two schools serve different grade bands, comparisons between them are directional rather than exact.
Merrillville Intermediate School is the stronger performer on current measures, with 2025–2026 all-grade proficiency of 32.29% in ELA and 33.73% in Math, both above the district (31.35% ELA, 31.42% Math). Its chronic absenteeism is 13.2%, well below the district's 19.6% and the state's 16.7%. Pierce Middle School, though larger, shows greater challenges: 26.75% in ELA and 19.22% in Math — Math sitting 12.20 points below the district — with chronic absenteeism at 19.8%, slightly above the district and above the state. Pierce's recent rankings are 1 star in each of 2023–2024, 2024–2025 and 2025–2026, including 352 of 486, 28th percentile, in the latest year.
Both schools improved from 2024–2025 to 2025–2026 in ELA and Math, and both trail state grade-level results, though Intermediate's gaps are generally smaller. Poverty and staffing profiles are similar: free/reduced lunch is 53.19% at Pierce versus 54.44% at Intermediate, spending per student $11,123 versus $11,520, and student-teacher ratios 12.8 versus 13.0. One caveat: Intermediate's most recent school rank is older, from 2017–2018 (198 of 473, 58th percentile, 3 stars), so current school-level rank comparison is incomplete.
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