Morton Elementary School

Morton Elementary School is a public elementary school serving grades PK-6 in Hammond, Indiana, part of the School City of Hammond district. With consistently low rankings and academic performance, Morton Elementary faces significant challenges in student attendance, socioeconomic factors, and overall educational outcomes.

The school has struggled with high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 17.8% to 38.2% in recent years, well above the district average. Academically, Morton Elementary students perform well below state and district averages on ILEARN assessments, with only 14.75% proficient or better in English Language Arts and 13.72% in math, compared to 17.3% and 13.04% respectively for the district. Additionally, the school has a very high percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating the socioeconomic challenges faced by its student population.

When compared to other schools in the School City of Hammond district, Morton Elementary performs significantly worse on academic measures. For example, Lew Wallace Elementary and Frank O'Bannon Elementary have higher proficiency rates in both English Language Arts and Math. The contrast is even more stark when compared to schools in neighboring districts, such as Ernest R. Elliott Elementary and James B. Eads Elementary in the School Town of Munster district, which have proficiency rates over 60% in both subjects.