The top reported proficiency rate is 70% in Science. The lowest is 54% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Marlin Elementary School
Marlin Elementary School serves students from preschool through sixth grade as part of the Monroe County Community School Corporation in Bloomington, Indiana. It is a regular public school. The school’s academic results on the state’s ILEARN assessments place it among the stronger elementary options in the county. In mathematics and English language arts, proficiency rates are well above the midpoint of what Monroe County districts report as a group, and science results are similarly solid. Social studies proficiency, measured only in fifth grade, is lower—about half of students met the bar—a narrower finding a family might want to ask the school about directly, since it covers just one grade and one subject. Overall, the school’s combined proficiency index across all tested subjects and grades sits in the top quartile among districts in Monroe County, a consistently strong showing that suggests effective instruction for most students.
The student body is about two hundred children, concentrated in kindergarten through sixth grade, with a small preschool program that had no reported enrollment in the most recent data. Just under a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a share that points to some economic diversity without placing the school at the highest need level. Racially, the school is predominantly white, with small numbers of students who are Hispanic, Black, multiracial, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. Information on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the data provided, so a parent interested in special education services or language support programs would need to contact the school directly to learn about those offerings. Likewise, no data on discipline, chronic absenteeism, or student-teacher ratios was reported, which limits a full picture of the school environment beyond test scores.
The school is located in the eastern part of Bloomington, a mid-sized city anchored by Indiana University Bloomington. The university’s presence shapes the local economy and housing market—home values in the surrounding zip code run above the state average but close to the national figure, while rents are moderate relative to incomes. Jobs in the area extend beyond the university into life sciences, medical devices, and technology, with a major medical-device employer headquartered in the city. Bloomington itself is a bike-friendly community with a downtown square, trails like the B-Line, and a city government that has repurposed historic industrial buildings. The K-12 system is decentralized: elementary schools like Marlin are distributed across the city rather than clustered on one campus.
For a family considering Marlin Elementary, the academic picture is the strongest available signal. The school consistently delivers proficient-or-above results that exceed most of its county peers. The gaps in reported data on special education, attendance, and staffing are common for elementary schools that are not required to publish every metric publicly, but they are gaps nonetheless. A parent might want to visit, talk with the principal about how the school serves students who need extra support, and confirm that the social studies outcome for fifth graders reflects a one-year pattern or a longer trend. The neighborhood context is a stable, moderately priced part of a university town with good civic amenities and a diversified local economy.
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