Summary:
ZIP code 46408 in Gary, Indiana has six schools serving about 2,527 students across the full K–12 pipeline plus an alternative setting, and it is a high-poverty area where nearly every school trails the state average. Four schools — Calumet New Technical High School, Longfellow New Technical Elementary School, Lake Ridge New Technical Middle School — plus one more belong to Lake Ridge New Technical Schools (1,550 students), one to Gary Community School Corp (566), and two are independent charters (411). Both traditional districts rank near the bottom of Indiana's 374 districts and carry 0-star ratings.
Only one school posts results above the state average: Steel City Academy, where 4th-grade Math is 63.16% (state 52%) and 4th-grade ELA is 47.37% (state 42.2%). It also has the ZIP's best attendance (16.4% chronic absenteeism vs. the state's 16.7%) and smallest classes (8.9 students per teacher). Lake Ridge New Technical Middle School is the clear improver, moving from the 4th to the 11th percentile over three years with the strongest traditional-public 8th-grade ELA in the ZIP (25.96%). Calumet New Technical High School graduates 97.2% of students (state 89.7%) yet tests at just 4.38% in SAT Math, and Longfellow New Technical Elementary School beats its own district in Math and Science despite 97.1% of students being economically disadvantaged.
Two schools stand apart for different reasons. Excel Center - Gary reports a 6.4% graduation rate, 95.0% chronic absenteeism, and the lowest spending ($6,052 per student) — a profile suggesting a dropout-recovery model not comparable to a comprehensive high school. Glen Park Academy for Excel in Learning ranks 1004th of 1015 schools despite the highest elementary spending in the ZIP ($17,768) and posts the weakest elementary proficiency. Families should note that spending does not track with results here, and that SAT Math is a ZIP-wide weakness.
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