Meadow's Edge Elementary School

Meadow's Edge Elementary School is a PK–5 school at 16333 Kern Rd in Mishawaka, Indiana, serving 382 students as part of the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp, one of Indiana's higher-performing districts. That district label can be misleading: while the district ranks in the 91st percentile statewide with 5 stars, Meadow's Edge Elementary School itself sits at 508th of 1,015 elementary and middle schools — the 50th percentile, 3 stars — and has held 3 stars for five straight years.

Two things stand out for families. First, this is a high-poverty school that does a lot with what it has. About 63% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, the second-highest rate among eleven nearby schools, yet Meadow's Edge ranks second of those eleven in reading and science and third in math. It spends $10,737 per student — the third-lowest in that group — while Monroe Elementary School in South Bend Community School Corp spends $15,613 per student and posts far lower proficiency rates. Attendance is also a relative strength: 10.8% of students are chronically absent, well below the state's 16.7% and lower than most Mishawaka and South Bend peers. Second, students here score below the district average in every subject, including a roughly 23-point gap in English/language arts.

Grade-level results are uneven. Third and fifth graders meet or beat the state in reading and math, but fourth grade trails the state in all three tested subjects, and fifth-grade social studies is 9.5 points below the state — the clearest curricular gap. Compared with Elm Road Elementary School, 2.8 miles away in the same district, Meadow's Edge scores 6–10 points lower per subject, though it serves considerably more low-income students. Over the past decade the school has slid roughly 30 percentile points, from well above average to mid-pack.