Summary:
Zip code 46204 has one middle school serving grades 6–8: Arlington Middle School - a STEM School, a 365-student school in Indianapolis Public Schools in downtown Indianapolis. It is the only middle school in this zip code, so all comparisons below are to the district and state rather than to another local middle school. The school has been ranked at or near the bottom of Indiana middle schools for three straight years: 480th out of 486 in 2025–2026, with 0 stars each year.
Academically, proficiency is far below district and state levels. In 2025–2026, all-grades English Language Arts proficiency was 4.9% versus the district’s 21.09%, Math was 2.59% versus 21.19%, and Science was 0% versus 21.32%. Despite the STEM name, Science was the lowest tested subject; it fell from 7.53% in 2024–2025 to 0% in 2025–2026. Grade-level results show 8th grade doing better than 6th and 7th within the school: ELA rose from 0.99% in 6th to 5.94% in 7th to 7.69% in 8th, and Math rose from 0.98% to 1.98% to 4.72%. Chronic absenteeism was 35.5%, above the district’s 32.2% and more than double the state’s 16.7%.
Context metrics show high need and relatively high spending: 67.67% of students received free/reduced lunch, per-student spending was $27,043, and the student-teacher ratio was 11.9. A relative bright spot is Biology End-of-Course proficiency at 20%, nearly matching the district’s 20.07%, though still below the state’s 45.6% from the prior year. Year-over-year changes were mostly flat or negative: ELA improved slightly from 3.97% to 4.9%, Math was essentially flat from 2.55% to 2.59%, Biology improved from 18.75% to 20%, but Science dropped sharply. For parents, the data show a school with severe academic and attendance challenges and a STEM designation that contrasts with its 2025–2026 Science results; the data do not establish causation.
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