Summary:
ZIP code 46221 contains two high schools serving grades 9–12 — Decatur Central High School and Excel Center - Decatur — with a combined enrollment of 2,233 students in this southwest Indianapolis area.
Decatur Central High School is by far the larger school, with 1,974 students — about 88% of all high schoolers here and roughly 7.6 times the size of Excel Center. It belongs to MSD Decatur Township. Its 91.0% graduation rate is slightly above the state's 89.7%, which is a genuine bright spot. However, 38.4% of its students are chronically absent, well above the district's 24.4% and the state's 16.7%. Test proficiency is low: only 10.02% were proficient in SAT Math and 36.4% in SAT EBRW in 2025–2026, compared with 25.6% and 51.9% statewide. The school holds a 1-star rating and ranks 322nd of 415 (22nd percentile), though that is a modest improvement from 346th of 429 (19th percentile) the prior year. It reports a 15:1 student-teacher ratio, $11,783 in per-student spending, and a 56.23% free/reduced lunch rate.
Excel Center - Decatur, part of the Excel Center - Decatur district, is much smaller at 259 students and has a very different profile: a 71.43% free/reduced lunch rate, a 32.3:1 student-teacher ratio (about 2.15 times higher than Decatur Central's), and a 17.8% graduation rate, far below the state's 89.7%. It has no test score, ranking, absenteeism, or spending data reported here, so it cannot be fully compared on academics — those missing figures should not be read as zeros or failures. Parents should weigh the size, structure, and available outcomes of each school carefully.
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