Summary:
Frankton-Lapel Community Schools contains just one middle school — Lapel Middle School — serving grades 6–8 with 335 students in Lapel, Indiana, and it stands out for a rising state ranking, solid test-score gains, and unusually low chronic absenteeism.
Because there is only one middle school in this district, there are no in-district comparisons to make, so the more useful benchmarks are the school's own history and the state. Lapel Middle School climbed from the 43rd percentile in 2023–2024 to the 49th in 2024–2025 and to the 68th in 2025–2026, improving 123 places in the state ranking and moving from 2 stars to 3 stars. It now sits roughly in the top third of ranked Indiana middle schools. Chronic absenteeism is 9.9%, well below the Frankton-Lapel Community Schools rate of 12.7% and the state rate of 16.7%, which is a meaningful school-climate strength.
Academically, English language arts is the relative strength: all-grade proficiency is 45.45%, about 6 points above the district, and grades 6 and 7 score above both district and state averages. Math is strong in grades 6 (50.81%) and 7 (44.44%), but 8th-grade math is 31.97% — above the district but below the state. Science is the clearest concern, at 33.06% in 6th grade versus a state figure of 41.20%. Encouragingly, the school improved faster than the district in every subject year over year, gaining 10.44 points in ELA, 8.89 in math, and 4.49 in science. About 34.63% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch, per-student spending is $8,458, and the student-teacher ratio is 14.7.
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