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Parents: what's one thing you'd want the William Penn School 49 administration to hear?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
367
Middle
DISTRICT 497 · STATE 594
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·INDIANAPOLIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS·NCES 180477000904
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School
1720 W Wilkins St, Indianapolis, IN 46221 · (317) 226-4249 · Marion County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL367 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 2% of Indiana public middle 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.
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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
10.1:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 11.8:1 · STATE 15.6:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
65%
240 students
DISTRICT 58% · STATE 50%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 6 | 130 | 35% |
| Grade 7 | 138 | 38% |
| Grade 8 | 99 | 27% |
Student demographics
69%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 68% · 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
12.6%
IN avg 39.2%
Math
7.3%
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
9.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
29.3%
based on IN schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-20.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 9% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 29% 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 William Penn Middle School - a STEM School
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School's state test result (9.1% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| William Penn Middle School - a STEM School this school | 367 | 65.4% | 9.1% |
| River Forest Middle School Hobart | 369 | 74.0% | 20.3% |
| North Side Middle School Elkhart | 563 | 57.4% | 17.5% |
| Pierre Moran Middle School Elkhart | 396 | 59.8% | 19.4% |
| Thomas Carr Howe Middle School - an IB World School Indianapolis | 455 | 70.8% | N/A |
| Concord Intermediate School Elkhart | 756 | 62.0% | 31.7% |
Matched among Indiana middle 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 William Penn Middle School - a STEM School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Indiana | In Marion County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 9.1% | #318 of 324 | #31 of 33 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 7.3% | #310 of 325 | #31 of 33 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 12.6% | #317 of 325 | #31 of 33 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 367 | #245 of 334 | #30 of 37 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 10.1:1 | #5 of 314 | #1 of 35 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 69.3% | #26 of 315 | #8 of 35 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 65.4% | #53 of 330 | #13 of 36 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -44.2% | #2 of 187 | #1 of 13 |
Ranked against other public middle 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
367
-226 (-38%) vs 2020
-32% since 1990-91, when it was 542
Student : Teacher
10.1:1
was 11.9:1
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 | 367 | 36.3 | 10.1:1 | 65% (240) |
| 2023-24 | 452 | 31.8 | 14.2:1 | 64% (290) |
| 2022-23 | 509 | 38 | 13.4:1 | 78% (397) |
| 2020-21 | 593 | 50 | 11.9:1 | 70% (414) |
| 2017-18 | 658 | 33 | 20.0:1 | 77% (505) |
| 2015-16 | 660 | 38 | 17.4:1 | 75% (496) |
| 2010-11 | 793 | 51 | 15.6:1 | 85% (678) |
| 2000-01 | 760 | 49 | 15.5:1 | 87% (658) |
| 1990-91 | 542 | 32 | 16.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for William Penn Middle School - a STEM School.
About William Penn Middle School - a STEM School
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School, located in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a low-enrollment middle school. Enrolled students number 367 students, in grades 6 through 8. Enrollment is 38% lower than the average for middle schools in Indiana, which is about 594.
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School is one school in a 49-school district, Indianapolis Public Schools, which enrolls 21,055 students.
No single group makes up more than half of enrollment at William Penn Middle School - a STEM School. The largest is Hispanic students, at 43%. Other students are 26% White, 23% Black, and 8% multiracial. That is higher than the 14% Hispanic share among all Marion County residents. Pick two students at random and there is a 69% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School employs 36.3 full-time-equivalent teachers. That gives a ratio of about 10.1:1. The school has fewer students per teacher than the 15.6:1 average for middle schools in Indiana. William Penn Middle School - a STEM School's free or reduced-price lunch eligibility rate is 65%.
Measured against Indiana public middle schools, William Penn Middle School - a STEM School receives an F. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School trails its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests by 20.2 points (9.1% versus 29.3%), a bottom-10% result in Indiana on BeatsExpectations.
Census estimates describe Marion County this way: the median household income is $66,346, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 35% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 12%. In all, Marion County has 274 public schools and roughly 161,456 students.
The school nearest to William Penn Middle School - a STEM School is Daniel Webster School 46 - an Exploratory School, at a distance of about 0.5 miles. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. William Penn Middle School - a STEM School is 4th of 4 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
Locale: City: Large. In NCES terms, the school is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School's enrollment dropped from 593 in 2020-21 to 367 in 2024-25. In 2020-21, the student-to-teacher ratio was 11.9:1; by 2024-25 it was 10.1:1.
The William Penn Middle School - a STEM School community page is open for posts about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Marion County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
975,809
Census ACS
Median income
$66,346
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
35%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
12%
Below federal line
Schools in county
274
161,456 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Indianapolis Public Schools
- Arsenal Technical High SchoolHigh · 2,360 students
- Crispus Attucks High SchoolHigh · 1,269 students
- Shortridge High SchoolHigh · 1,206 students
- George Washington High SchoolHigh · 729 students
- Broad Ripple Middle School - an IB World SchoolMiddle · 623 students
- Northwest Middle School - an IB World SchoolMiddle · 623 students
Other schools in Indianapolis
- Indiana Connections AcademyCombined · 5,376 students
- North Central High SchoolHigh · 3,682 students
- Franklin Central High SchoolHigh · 3,438 students
- Warren Central High SchoolHigh · 3,391 students
- Ben Davis High SchoolHigh · 3,315 students
- Pike High SchoolHigh · 3,188 students
Nearby schools
- Daniel Webster School 46 - an Exploratory School0.5 mi · 416
- Edison School of the Arts 470.8 mi · 617
- George Washington High School0.9 mi · 729
- Excel Center - Michigan Street1.3 mi · 385
- Indianapolis Metropolitan High Sch1.3 mi · 194
- Christel House Academy West1.4 mi · 485
Frequently asked questions
About William Penn Middle School - a STEM SchoolHow large is William Penn Middle School - a STEM School?
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School enrolls approximately 367 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does William Penn Middle School - a STEM School serve?
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at William Penn Middle School - a STEM School?
Approximately 10.1:1 students per teacher at William Penn Middle School - a STEM School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at William Penn Middle School - a STEM School?
At William Penn Middle School - a STEM School, the student body is approximately 26% White, 43% Hispanic, 23% Black, 8% Two or more.
Who oversees William Penn Middle School - a STEM School?
William Penn Middle School - a STEM School is overseen by Indianapolis Public Schools in Marion County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.