Summary:
ZIP code 46975 in Rochester, Indiana is home to six public schools serving 2,409 students across two districts — Rochester Community School Corp, which runs four buildings from pre-K through grade 12, and Caston School Corporation, which runs a lean K–12 pair — in a small-town, rural setting where every school enrolls a majority low-income student body (free/reduced lunch ranges only from 58% to 67%).
The clear academic standout is Rochester Community Middle School, ranked in the 80th percentile of Indiana middle schools with 4 stars, up from the 47th percentile two years earlier. It posts the ZIP's highest math proficiency (58.12%), the best ELA (50.71%), and the lowest chronic absenteeism anywhere here at 3.6%, far under the state's 16.7%. Rochester Community High School claims the ZIP's best headline number — a 100% graduation rate versus 89.7% statewide — and SAT reading of 56.76% that beats the state's 51.9%, though its SAT math is 11.71% against 25.6% at state. Caston Junior-Senior High School is the science specialist, with Biology End-of-Course at 59.62% (state 45.6) for a second straight year.
Math is the shared weak spot: both high schools fall far below the state on SAT math, and 5th-grade math shows a 50-point gap between Caston Elementary School (19.67%) and Rochester Middle (69.77%). Attendance is a ZIP-wide strength — all six schools beat the state average — but Columbia Elementary School sits at 16.3%, essentially at the state line, and serves PK–1, making it the earliest place to build habits. George M Riddle Elementary School holds steady around the 40th percentile. Notably, Rochester Community High spends $29,188 per student, 2.4 times the next-highest building, without a matching edge in outcomes.
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