The top reported proficiency rate is 56% in Math. The lowest is 33% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Herron Preparatory Academy
Herron Preparatory Academy is a very young district in Indianapolis, part of the IPS Innovation Network. It launched in August 2021 as a small elementary school and is adding one grade each year, with a plan to become a full kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school by the 2026-27 school year. Right now, it serves kindergarten through fifth grade, a point that distinguishes it from most other districts that span a wider grade band or include high school. Because it does not serve high school grades, it has no graduation rate to report, and a parent assessing this school for the long haul should note that the upper elementary and middle school grades are still being built out.
The student body is small. White students make up the largest share of enrollment, followed by Black students, and there are smaller populations of students who are two or more races, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Asian and American Indian or Alaska Native students are not represented in the reported counts. Data on the share of students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals, the share with an Individualized Education Program, and the share who are English learners were not available in the source data. A parent may want to ask the school directly about the socioeconomic composition and the availability of special education and language support.
On state assessments, Herron Preparatory’s students performed at a level that places the district among the top quarter of Marion County’s districts on an overall proficiency measure that averages results across tested subjects and grades. In math, more than half of students scored proficient or above. In English language arts, just under half did. Science results, also from the elementary grades tested, showed slightly more than half of students proficient. Social studies, which is tested only at fifth grade, had a lower result, with roughly a third of those students scoring proficient. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, especially since the cohort of fifth graders was small and the district is still early in its growth.
The district’s chronic absenteeism rate is low, which places it in the top quarter of Marion County districts on that measure as well. Per-pupil current spending is in the upper range among the county’s districts, a figure that may reflect the small size of the school and the costs associated with a new, growing program.
The district brief, drawn from publicly reported information, describes Herron Preparatory Academy as a classical liberal arts program. It shares leadership with Herron-Riverside High School. That classical approach is a distinguishing feature and may appeal to families who want a curriculum centered on traditional liberal arts content and methods. The school is adding a grade each year, so a family who enrolls now will see the institution change significantly by the time their child reaches the upper grades. There is no separate locale brief for the school’s immediate neighborhood, and the district’s boundaries within Indianapolis are not specified in the data provided, so a parent would need to confirm whether they live within the attendance zone or whether enrollment is by application through the Innovation Network.
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