Summary:
Zip code 46409 in Gary, Indiana contains exactly one middle school — Bailly Middle School, serving grades 6–8 at 4621 Georgia St under Gary Community School Corp — so parents here have a single option within the zip code and nothing to compare it against locally.
That one school's results are among the lowest in Indiana. Bailly ranked 478th of 486 middle schools in 2025-2026, putting it in the bottom 2% of the state, and it has earned 0 stars in each of the three years on record. Proficiency on the 2025-2026 ILEARN was 6.84% in English Language Arts, 2.37% in Math, and 5.71% in Science, meaning only about 1 in 15 students met the ELA standard and roughly 1 in 42 met the math standard. Bailly trails its own district in every all-grades subject, and sits 30 to 38 percentage points below Indiana in every tested subject by grade level. Its scores also roughly halved in a single year, falling from 14.40% to 6.84% in ELA and from 5.88% to 2.37% in math, a steeper drop than the district experienced. The lowest single figure is 7th grade math at 0.87%; the one bright spot is 6th grade ELA at 8.57%, the only grade-level subject where Bailly outperforms its district (7.22%).
The most striking number, however, is attendance: 79.1% of Bailly students were chronically absent in 2024-2025, compared with 63.6% in the district and 16.7% statewide. Notably, resources do not appear to be the constraint — Bailly spends $18,063 per student and has a favorable 12.7-to-1 student-teacher ratio with 355 students enrolled, while 60% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Parents should know that the school's small classes and high spending have not translated into proficiency gains, and that attendance is the most likely place to focus first.
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