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Which teacher or staff member at Charter School of the Dunes deserves more recognition?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
836
Elementary
STATE 436
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CHARTER SCHOOL OF THE DUNES·NCES 180002701815
Charter School of the Dunes
7300 East Melton Rd, Gary, IN 46403 · (219) 939-9690 · Lake County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBCHARTERTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL836 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 1% of Indiana public elementary schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Indiana public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
17.8:1
47 FTE teachers
STATE 15.5:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
67%
564 students
STATE 50%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 45 | 5% |
| Kindergarten | 97 | 12% |
| Grade 1 | 82 | 10% |
| Grade 2 | 76 | 9% |
| Grade 3 | 88 | 11% |
| Grade 4 | 100 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 85 | 10% |
| Grade 6 | 94 | 11% |
| Grade 7 | 86 | 10% |
| Grade 8 | 83 | 10% |
This year's kindergarten class (97) is 17% larger than its 8th grade class (83).
Student demographics
27%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
STATE 57% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
ILEARN 2024-25 . % At or Above ProficiencyEnglish Language Arts
13.1%
IN avg 39.2%
Math
6.9%
IN avg 41.1%
What this means: On the ILEARN, Indiana's statewide test, about 13 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 7 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Indiana schools, those numbers are about 39 and 41.
Source: ILEARN. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of IN schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
9.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
27.8%
based on IN schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-18.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 10% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 28% typical for Indiana schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Charter School of the Dunes
Charter School of the Dunes's state test result (9.6% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charter School of the Dunes this school | 836 | 67.5% | 9.6% |
| Glen Park Acad for Excel in Lrn Gary | 566 | 58.0% | 7.2% |
| Brook Park Elementary School Indianapolis | 637 | 74.7% | 10.9% |
| Daniel Hale Williams Elem Sch Gary | 450 | 69.8% | 8.3% |
| Brookview Elementary School Indianapolis | 507 | 68.6% | 23.9% |
| Frankie Woods McCullough Academy Gary | 472 | 57.4% | 7.1% |
Matched among Indiana elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Charter School of the Dunes ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Indiana | In Lake County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 9.6% | #955 of 983 | #56 of 61 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 6.9% | #975 of 986 | #61 of 61 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 13.1% | #930 of 986 | #53 of 61 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 836 | #22 of 1,079 | #1 of 70 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.8:1 | #859 of 991 | #49 of 69 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 27.3% | #678 of 996 | #63 of 69 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 67.5% | #206 of 1,058 | #15 of 70 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +46.7% | #34 of 353 | #3 of 26 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
836
+152 (+22%) vs 2020
+130% since 2010-11, when it was 364
Student : Teacher
17.8:1
was 23.6:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 836 | 47 | 17.8:1 | 67% (564) |
| 2023-24 | 674 | 43 | 15.7:1 | 95% (641) |
| 2022-23 | 684 | 38 | 18.0:1 | 97% (664) |
| 2020-21 | 684 | 29 | 23.6:1 | 94% (643) |
| 2017-18 | 570 | 34 | 16.8:1 | 92% (523) |
| 2015-16 | 504 | 24 | 21.0:1 | 89% (451) |
| 2010-11 | 364 | 19 | 19.2:1 | 76% (278) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Charter School of the Dunes.
About Charter School of the Dunes
In Gary, Indiana, Charter School of the Dunes is a large elementary school. The school runs pre-K through 8 and enrolls 836 students. By comparison, elementary schools in Indiana enroll about 436 students on average.
Charter School of the Dunes is its own local education agency in federal data.
Black students are 85% of those enrolled at Charter School of the Dunes. Beyond that, enrollment is 9% Hispanic and 5% multiracial. In Lake County overall, about 23% of residents are Black. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 27, compared with 70 nationally.
Charter School of the Dunes has 47 full-time-equivalent teachers on staff and a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.8:1. Across elementary schools in Indiana, the average ratio is 15.5:1. The school has 67% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The gap from the 47% average for public schools in Lake County is 20 points.
On the allk12 Grade, Charter School of the Dunes lands at F, ahead of 1% of Indiana public elementary schools.
Charter School of the Dunes posts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 9.6%. Schools with its free or reduced-price lunch share in Indiana are predicted to post 27.8%, so the school is 18.2 points behind and in the state's bottom 10%.
The school is in Lake County, where the median household earns about $71,493 a year, about 26% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 11% of residents are in poverty. Across Lake County, 121 public schools serve about 74,661 students.
Gary Middle School is about 0.9 miles away, making it the nearest public school. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. Ranked by average proficiency, Charter School of the Dunes places 7th out of 8 schools in its immediate area.
For locale, NCES codes Charter School of the Dunes as Suburb: Large. Charter School of the Dunes operates as a charter school, which is publicly funded and run under a charter.
In 2024-25, the school enrolled 836, up from 684 in 2020-21. The number of students per teacher dropped from 23.6 to 17.8 over 4 years.
This community page is for conversations about fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. Teachers and staff are welcome to share updates too.
Lake County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
500,379
Census ACS
Median income
$71,493
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
26%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
11%
Below federal line
Schools in county
121
74,661 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Gary
- West Side Leadership AcademyHigh · 1,232 students
- 21st Century Charter Sch of GaryCombined · 1,180 students
- Gary Lighthouse Charter SchoolCombined · 1,138 students
- Thea Bowman Leadership AcademyCombined · 773 students
- Aspire Charter AcademyElementary · 684 students
- Calumet New Tech High SchoolHigh · 620 students
Nearby schools
- Gary Middle School0.9 mi · 365
- Banneker Elementary at Marquette1.3 mi · 293
- Thomas A Edison Jr-Sr HS1.3 mi · 595
- Virgil I Bailey Elementary School1.4 mi · 235
- Alexander Hamilton Elementary Sch2.3 mi · 200
- John I Meister Elementary School2.7 mi · 373
Frequently asked questions
About Charter School of the DunesHow many students attend Charter School of the Dunes?
Charter School of the Dunes enrolls approximately 836 students in grades PK-08.
What grades does Charter School of the Dunes serve?
Charter School of the Dunes serves grades PK-08.
How many students per teacher at Charter School of the Dunes?
Approximately 17.8:1 students per teacher at Charter School of the Dunes.
How diverse is Charter School of the Dunes?
Charter School of the Dunes reports a student body of 1% White, 9% Hispanic, 85% Black, 0% Asian, 5% Two or more.
Who oversees Charter School of the Dunes?
Charter School of the Dunes is overseen by Charter School of the Dunes in Lake County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.