River Forest Middle School

River Forest Middle School is a public middle school located in Hobart, Indiana, serving grades 6-8 with a total enrollment of 374 students. The school is part of the River Forest Community School Corporation, which is ranked 322 out of 380 school districts in Indiana and has a 1-star rating from SchoolDigger.

River Forest Middle School consistently performs below the state and district averages in ILEARN assessments for English Language Arts, Math, and Science. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, only 24.09% of students were proficient or better in ELA, compared to the district average of 20.97% and the state average of 40.5-42.7% for individual grade levels. Similarly, the school's math proficiency rate of 11.17% was significantly lower than the district average of 15.81% and the state averages of 34.5-39.7%. The school also experiences high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 17.8% to 25.7% over the past few years, which is significantly higher than the state average. Additionally, the school has a very high percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, ranging from 57.87% to 87.07% over the past few years, indicating a high level of economic disadvantage among the student population.

When compared to nearby middle schools, Union Township Middle School, which is only 7.54 miles away, has significantly higher proficiency rates in ELA (63.72%), Math (60.67%), and Science (53.91%) than River Forest. Similarly, Hobart Middle School, which is 2.49 miles away, has proficiency rates around 40% or higher in these subjects. Despite the relatively high spending per student at River Forest Middle School, ranging from $8,148 to $9,950 per year, the academic performance of the school remains significantly lower than the state and nearby school averages, suggesting that simply increasing funding may not be the sole solution to improving student outcomes.