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What's the most underrated thing about Merle J Abbett Elementary School that outsiders don't know?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
467
Elementary
DISTRICT 429 · STATE 436
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FORT WAYNE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS·NCES 180363000547
Merle J Abbett Elementary School
4325 Smith St, Fort Wayne, IN 46806 · (260) 467-5800 · Allen County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL467 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 2% 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.
- DBeats 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
12.0:1
39 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.9:1 · STATE 15.5:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
73%
339 students
DISTRICT 64% · 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 | 41 | 9% |
| Kindergarten | 68 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 70 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 65 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 86 | 18% |
| Grade 4 | 73 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 64 | 14% |
This year's kindergarten class (68) is 6% larger than its 5th grade class (64).
Student demographics
68%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 75% · 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
9.9%
IN avg 39.2%
Math
8.1%
IN avg 41.1%
What this means: On the ILEARN, Indiana's statewide test, about 10 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 8 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
9.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
24.2%
based on IN schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-14.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 9% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 24% 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 Merle J Abbett Elementary School
Merle J Abbett Elementary School's state test result (9.4% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merle J Abbett Elementary School this school | 467 | 72.6% | 9.4% |
| Harrison Hill Elementary School Fort Wayne | 612 | 70.9% | 25.6% |
| Fairfield Elementary School Fort Wayne | 481 | 69.6% | 15.3% |
| Edison Middle School South Bend | 551 | 67.0% | 12.4% |
| Lew Wallace School 107 - an Exploratory School Indianapolis | 440 | 59.5% | 13.9% |
| Clinton Young Elementary School Indianapolis | 595 | 80.3% | 19.4% |
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 Merle J Abbett Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Indiana | In Allen County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 9.4% | #957 of 983 | #50 of 51 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 8.1% | #967 of 986 | #50 of 51 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 9.9% | #964 of 986 | #50 of 51 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 467 | #453 of 1,079 | #29 of 55 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.0:1 | #83 of 991 | #10 of 55 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 67.7% | #121 of 996 | #26 of 55 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 72.6% | #113 of 1,058 | #12 of 55 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -0.4% | #588 of 597 | #31 of 31 |
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
467
-57 (-11%) vs 2020
+37% since 1990-91, when it was 342
Student : Teacher
12.0:1
was 20.1:1
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 | 467 | 39 | 12.0:1 | 73% (339) |
| 2023-24 | 450 | 69.8 | 6.5:1 | 81% (365) |
| 2022-23 | 498 | 52.8 | 9.4:1 | 87% (431) |
| 2020-21 | 524 | 26 | 20.1:1 | 86% (449) |
| 2017-18 | 469 | 26 | 18.0:1 | 92% (430) |
| 2015-16 | 466 | 23 | 20.3:1 | 92% (429) |
| 2010-11 | 307 | 20 | 15.3:1 | 95% (291) |
| 2000-01 | 351 | 23 | 15.3:1 | 79% (279) |
| 1990-91 | 342 | 18 | 19.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Merle J Abbett Elementary School.
About Merle J Abbett Elementary School
Merle J Abbett Elementary School is a mid-sized elementary school based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The school runs pre-K through 5 and enrolls 467 students.
Federal data list 50 schools in Fort Wayne Community Schools, with 28,561 students enrolled.
Hispanic students make up 46% of enrollment at Merle J Abbett Elementary School, the largest share of any group. Other reported shares: 31% Black, 12% Asian, 8% multiracial, and 4% White. That compares with about 9% Hispanic among all Allen County residents. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 68%.
Based on 39 full-time-equivalent teachers, Merle J Abbett Elementary School has a ratio of 12.0:1. The average for elementary schools in Indiana, 15.5:1, is higher. Income data for the school show 73% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. By comparison, the figure for public schools in Allen County is 50%.
Merle J Abbett Elementary School earns an F on the allk12 Grade, which blends test scores, results against poverty-based expectations, and the three-year trend. It scored higher than 2% of Indiana public elementary schools.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Merle J Abbett Elementary School is in the bottom 10% of Indiana schools: 9.4% actual against 24.2% predicted.
American Community Survey estimates for Allen County show that the median household earns about $70,737 a year, about 32% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 10% of residents are in poverty. Allen County has 92 public schools with about 55,262 students, including Merle J Abbett Elementary School.
Of the public schools around it, Merle J Abbett Elementary School is closest to Levan R Scott Academy, about 0.7 miles away. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. Compared with its nearest neighbors, Merle J Abbett Elementary School ranks 6th of 7 on average proficiency.
The school's federal locale classification is City: Large.
The school shrank from 524 students in 2020-21 to 467 in 2024-25. In 2020-21, the student-to-teacher ratio was 20.1:1; by 2024-25 it was 12.0:1.
This page collects posts and questions about Merle J Abbett Elementary School, such as fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Allen County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
392,378
Census ACS
Median income
$70,737
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
32%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
10%
Below federal line
Schools in county
92
55,262 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Fort Wayne Community Schools
- Northrop High SchoolHigh · 2,145 students
- R Nelson Snider High SchoolHigh · 1,927 students
- South Side High SchoolHigh · 1,405 students
- Wayne High SchoolHigh · 1,398 students
- North Side High SchoolHigh · 1,383 students
- Blackhawk Middle SchoolMiddle · 814 students
Other schools in Fort Wayne
- Carroll High SchoolHigh · 2,623 students
- Homestead High SchoolHigh · 2,382 students
- Northrop High SchoolHigh · 2,145 students
- R Nelson Snider High SchoolHigh · 1,927 students
- South Side High SchoolHigh · 1,405 students
- Wayne High SchoolHigh · 1,398 students
Nearby schools
- Levan R Scott Academy0.7 mi · 419
- John S Irwin Elementary School0.7 mi · 302
- Weisser Park Elementary School0.8 mi · 632
- Timothy L Johnson Academy0.9 mi · 440
- Timothy L. Johnson Academy Middle0.9 mi · 150
- Whitney M Young Early Childhood1.0 mi · 218
Frequently asked questions
About Merle J Abbett Elementary SchoolHow large is Merle J Abbett Elementary School?
Merle J Abbett Elementary School enrolls approximately 467 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Merle J Abbett Elementary School serve?
Merle J Abbett Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at Merle J Abbett Elementary School?
Approximately 12.0:1 students per teacher at Merle J Abbett Elementary School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Merle J Abbett Elementary School?
At Merle J Abbett Elementary School, the student body is approximately 4% White, 46% Hispanic, 31% Black, 12% Asian, 8% Two or more.
What district is Merle J Abbett Elementary School in?
Merle J Abbett Elementary School is part of Fort Wayne Community Schools.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.