Schools in Zip Code 47978

ZIP code 47978 in Rensselaer is served by four public schools spanning PK through 12th grade — two elementary schools, one middle school and one high school — all part of Rensselaer Central School Corp, a district ranked 63rd of 374 in Indiana (83rd percentile, 4 stars) with 1,522 students enrolled across the four campuses.

The academic standout is Rensselaer Central Middle School, ranked 55th of 486 schools in 2025–2026 (89th percentile, 4 stars) and the only school in the ZIP code to improve its rank three years running, up from the 79th percentile in 2023–2024. Its grade-level results are notably strong versus the state, including 7th grade Math at 65.25% vs 35.90% and 6th grade ELA at 60.95% vs 41.30%. Rensselaer Central High School pairs a 93.2% graduation rate and 7.8% chronic absenteeism — the lowest of the four schools — with SAT ERW results above the state, though its Biology ILEARN End-of-Course proficiency fell to 29.85% in 2025–2026, below the district's 45.63%.

Elementary results are more mixed. Van Rensselaer Elementary School has slipped from the 76th to the 62nd percentile over three years, with strong 5th grade outcomes but weaker 4th grade ELA (36.04% vs the state's 42.20%) and Science (34.23% vs 43.80%). Rensselaer Central Primary School serves PK–2 and has no test scores or rank history in this data; it reports the highest free/reduced-lunch rate (51.01%), the highest chronic absenteeism (13.0%) and the lowest per-student spending ($9,756). Every school sits below Indiana's 16.7% chronic absenteeism rate, though the Primary and Middle schools exceed the district's 10.8%. Spending also diverges by level: the High School spends $15,130 per student with an 11.8 student-teacher ratio, while the other three cluster between roughly $9,800 and $10,800 with ratios near 15.7 to 16.0. These are small schools (329–432 students), so year-to-year swings should be read with caution.