Summary:
ZIP code 46303 — Cedar Lake, Indiana — has just one middle school, Hanover Central Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 with 647 students as part of the Hanover Community School Corp. Because there are no other middle schools in the ZIP, the most useful comparisons are between this school and its own district and the state of Indiana.
The school has been climbing steadily in the state rankings: 123rd of 491 Indiana middle schools in 2023–2024, 86th of 480 in 2024–2025, and 62nd of 486 in 2025–2026 — a move from the 75th to the 87th percentile while holding a 4-star rating. The district overall is rated higher, at 5 stars and 33rd of 374 (91st percentile). Test scores improved year over year as well: all-grade English Language Arts proficiency rose 5.57 points to 53.46%, and all-grade Math rose 6.19 points to 53.07%, while Science was essentially flat at 55.56%. In 2025–2026 the school beat state averages in every reported grade-level subject, with the largest gaps in Math 7 (60.75% vs. 35.90%), Math 6 (60.87% vs. 40.20%), and Science 6 (55.56% vs. 41.20%).
Two areas stand out for attention. Eighth grade is the weakest grade internally: Math 8 proficiency was 37.85%, well below Math 6 (60.87%) and Math 7 (60.75%), and ELA 8 was 46.73%, the lowest ELA grade — though both still exceed state averages, by 3.65 and 2.73 points respectively. Chronic absenteeism was 15.9%, better than Indiana's 16.7% but above the district's 11.0%. For context, free/reduced lunch was 20.25%, per-student spending was $11,721, and the student-teacher ratio was 16.1.
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