Summary:
ZIP code 47421 in Bedford, Indiana contains exactly one middle school — Bedford Middle School, serving grades 7 and 8 with 518 students as part of North Lawrence Com Schools. With no second school in the zip to compare against, the most useful benchmarks are the district, the state, and the school's own prior years.
The school is on a clear upward trend. Over three years it climbed from 281st to 241st statewide, moving from the 43rd percentile to the 50th and from 2 stars to 3. Math proficiency rose 4.01 points in a single year (29.92% to 33.93%) while English Language Arts held roughly flat (32.75% to 32.15%). Eighth-grade math is the one grade-level result that beats Indiana — 36.06% proficient versus 34.2% statewide. Every other grade-level comparison trails the state, and seventh grade lags eighth grade by 9.1 points in ELA and 4.6 points in math; 7th-grade ELA, at 27.31%, sits about 14 points below the state's 41.7%. Note that the school's grade 7–8 results are identical to the district's, since it is effectively the only provider of those tested grades.
The main concern is attendance. Chronic absenteeism stands at 20.4% — well above the district's 12.0% and the state's 16.7% — meaning roughly one in five students is chronically absent. About 59.07% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, per-student spending is $10,205, and the student–teacher ratio is 16:1. In short: a school performing at the statewide middle that is improving steadily, strongest in 8th-grade math, weaker in 7th-grade ELA, and carrying a significant attendance headwind.
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