Shoals Middle School

Shoals Middle School is a small public school in the rural southern Indiana town of Shoals, serving about 126 students in grades 6 through 8 as part of the Shoals Community School Corp, a district that ranks near the bottom of the state.

The school itself earned 1 star in 2025–26, ranking 376th of 486 Indiana middle schools (23rd percentile). Its attendance rate is the most striking concern: 31.1% of students were chronically absent in 2024–25, nearly double Indiana's 16.7% and the highest among nearby schools. Test scores are also low — 18.18% proficiency in English/language arts and 15.38% in math, the lowest of the comparison group. Math has stayed below 20% every reported year, and 7th grade is especially weak (10.71% in ELA, 7.14% in math). A bright spot is 6th-grade science at 37.25%, up sharply from 14.81% the prior year. Notably, Mitchell Junior High School posts similar 1-star results (24th percentile) but has less than half the absenteeism at 14.9%. Meanwhile, Loogootee Middle School, only 7.82 miles away, is a 4-star school with roughly 54% ELA, 46% math and 52% science proficiency, and Jasper Middle School is a 4-star, 90th-percentile school.

Shoals spends $12,738 per student (2023–24) — more than Loogootee or Jasper — with a student-teacher ratio of 14.8, so money and class size alone don't explain the gap. Prior years showed 62–66% of students qualifying for free/reduced lunch, though the 2024–25 figure of 2.38% is almost certainly a reporting change rather than a real shift. With only 126 students, year-to-year swings in rankings are exaggerated, so families should weigh multi-year trends. The clearest levers appear to be attendance and math instruction.