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What's the biggest difference between Thea Bowman Leadership Academy and what you expected?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
773
Combined
STATE 531
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·THEA BOWMAN LEADERSHIP ACADEMY·NCES 180002501807
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy
3401 W 5th Ave, Gary, IN 46406 · (219) 944-3100 · Lake County
GRADES KG–12COMBINED21-SUBURBCHARTERTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL773 STUDENTS
·
allk12 Grade
Not graded
This school has no state test results for 2023-24 or 2024-25 to grade, which is common for schools that end before third grade. How grades work
Student : Teacher
17.2:1
45 FTE teachers
STATE 24.5:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
64%
493 students
STATE 50%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other combined schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 47 | 6% |
| Grade 1 | 48 | 6% |
| Grade 2 | 48 | 6% |
| Grade 3 | 59 | 8% |
| Grade 4 | 61 | 8% |
| Grade 5 | 42 | 5% |
| Grade 6 | 70 | 9% |
| Grade 7 | 73 | 9% |
| Grade 8 | 75 | 10% |
| Grade 9 | 82 | 11% |
| Grade 10 | 69 | 9% |
| Grade 11 | 49 | 6% |
| Grade 12 | 50 | 6% |
This year's kindergarten class (47) is 37% smaller than its 8th grade class (75).
Student demographics
14%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
17.6%
IN avg 39.2%
Math
11.1%
IN avg 41.1%
What this means: On the ILEARN, Indiana's statewide test, about 18 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 11 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
12.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
30.4%
based on IN schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-17.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 13% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 30% 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 →
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
773
-93 (-11%) vs 2020
-48% since 2010-11, when it was 1,494
Student : Teacher
17.2:1
was 20.6:1
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 | 773 | 45 | 17.2:1 | 64% (493) |
| 2023-24 | 849 | 48 | 17.7:1 | 74% (629) |
| 2022-23 | 840 | 47 | 17.9:1 | 70% (589) |
| 2020-21 | 866 | 42 | 20.6:1 | 100% (866) |
| 2017-18 | 1,097 | 77.2 | 14.2:1 | 79% (863) |
| 2015-16 | 1,269 | 71 | 17.9:1 | 82% (1,038) |
| 2010-11 | 1,494 | 76 | 19.7:1 | 48% (721) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Thea Bowman Leadership Academy.
About Thea Bowman Leadership Academy
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is a combined-grade school with a street address in Gary, Indiana. The school had 773 students in kindergarten through 12 in 2024-25. Average enrollment for combined schools in Indiana is about 531, so this school runs 46% larger than that.
In federal data, the district for Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is the school itself.
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy enrolls a student body that is 93% Black. After that, the student body is 5% Hispanic and 2% multiracial. Census figures show Lake County is about 23% Black. The chance that two students picked at random at Thea Bowman Leadership Academy belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 14%.
Federal staffing data show 45 full-time-equivalent teachers at Thea Bowman Leadership Academy and a ratio of 17.2:1. That ratio is under the 24.5:1 average for combined schools in Indiana. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility covers 64% of students. The rate at public schools in Lake County averages 47%, lower than here.
When test results are adjusted for free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, Thea Bowman Leadership Academy ranks in the bottom 10% of Indiana schools. It scores 12.8%; the prediction is 30.4%.
Across Lake County, median household income is about $71,493, about 26% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 11%. Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is among the 121 public schools in Lake County.
The shortest distance from Thea Bowman Leadership Academy to another public school is about 0.5 miles, to Gary Lighthouse Charter School. The five-mile area around Thea Bowman Leadership Academy holds at least 8 other public schools. Nearby schools with test data average 12.9% proficiency; Thea Bowman Leadership Academy posts 12.8%.
NCES describes the area around Thea Bowman Leadership Academy as Suburb: Large, meaning in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more. Charter status: Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is a public charter school.
Federal counts put enrollment at 866 in 2020-21 and 773 in 2024-25, an 11% decrease. Federal data show the ratio falling from 20.6:1 to 17.2:1.
Discussions about Thea Bowman Leadership Academy may include school safety, transportation, and start times. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
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
- Charter School of the DunesElementary · 836 students
- Aspire Charter AcademyElementary · 684 students
- Calumet New Tech High SchoolHigh · 620 students
Nearby schools
- Gary Lighthouse Charter School0.5 mi · 1,138
- Aspire Charter Academy1.1 mi · 684
- Beveridge Elementary School1.3 mi · 374
- West Side Leadership Academy1.4 mi · 1,232
- Frankie Woods McCullough Academy1.4 mi · 472
- 21st Century Charter Sch of Gary2.3 mi · 1,180
Frequently asked questions
About Thea Bowman Leadership AcademyHow large is Thea Bowman Leadership Academy?
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy enrolls approximately 773 students in grades KG-12.
Is Thea Bowman Leadership Academy an elementary, middle, or high school?
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is a combined-grade school covering grades KG-12.
How many teachers does Thea Bowman Leadership Academy have?
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy employs 45 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.2:1.
What is the student diversity at Thea Bowman Leadership Academy?
Student demographics at Thea Bowman Leadership Academy are roughly 5% Hispanic, 93% Black, 2% Two or more.
Who oversees Thea Bowman Leadership Academy?
Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is overseen by Thea Bowman Leadership Academy in Lake County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.