Best Public Schools in Zip Code 47040

ZIP code 47040 covers Rising Sun, a small Ohio River community in southeastern Indiana, where three public schools serve students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade: Ohio County Elementary School (PK–5, 409 students), Ohio County Middle School (6–8, 187 students), and Rising Sun High School (9–12, 235 students), all part of the Rising Sun-Ohio County Com district. Together they enroll 831 students, and the district ranks 186th of 374 in Indiana — the 50th percentile — with 3 stars. That average, though, hides three very different schools.

Ohio County Elementary School is the academic engine. Its state rank climbed from the 51st to the 68th percentile over three cycles, and it beats the district in ELA (45.39% vs. 38.29%), math (53.29% vs. 34.81%), and science (49.12% vs. 42.48%), with 5th-grade social studies at 57.69% against the state's 47.2%. Its weak spot is chronic absenteeism at 17.7%, the highest of the three. Ohio County Middle School is the opposite: ELA (31.71%), math (17.68%), and science (35.71%) all trail the district, and its rank has swung between the 31st, 50th, and 33rd percentiles. Yet its Biology end-of-course scores are a striking outlier — 83.33% versus the district's 50.77%. Rising Sun High School posts a 98.0% graduation rate and just 7.0% chronic absenteeism, with SAT reading and writing at 51.92%, essentially at the state's 51.9%. Its clear weakness is SAT math, 15.38% against the state's 25.6%.

For families, the takeaway is that attendance and achievement do not move in lockstep here, and neither does spending: the high school spends the most per student ($15,045) while the middle school spends the least ($9,343) and has the smallest classes (9.9 students per teacher). The most useful local story is not the district's 50th-percentile average — it is the uneven performance among the three schools.