Summary:
Zip code 46118 covers the Clayton, Indiana area, and it contains just one elementary school: Mill Creek East Elementary, a K–5 school with 359 students serving the Mill Creek Community School Corp. Because there is only one school here, there are no local peers to compare it against — the useful benchmarks are its own district and the state of Indiana. That comparison is unusually clean, since every proficiency figure in the data is an exact percentage, with nothing suppressed by the state.
By almost any measure, Mill Creek East Elementary is a strong performer. In 2025–26 it ranked 142nd of 1,015 Indiana elementary schools (86th percentile, 4 stars), a big rebound from 346th the year before. Students beat the state proficiency average in all eight grade-level subjects where a state figure is given, from +1.82 points in 5th-grade social studies to +26.63 points in 5th-grade math. Math is the school's engine: 71.35% proficient across all grades versus 60.70% in the district. Every subject improved by double digits over the prior year, including a dramatic +21.57-point jump in 5th-grade social studies.
Chronic absenteeism is the quiet standout at just 3.4% — far below the district's 7.5% and roughly one-fifth of the state's 16.7% — which suggests the strong test scores reflect consistent instruction rather than who happens to show up. Two caveats are worth knowing: 5th-grade social studies is the only subject where the school trails its district (by 4.83 points), and proficiency slips from 3rd to 5th grade in both ELA and math, a pattern worth watching. With 35.1% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch and spending of $12,386 per student, this is a mid-sized, moderate-poverty school posting above-state results. The 2025–26 year is its best in this data set, though a single rebound year is promising rather than a confirmed trend.
Thank you for your feedback!