Harwood Career Prep High School, Evansville IN

Original Research by School Decision on Harwood Career Prep High School

Harwood Career Prep High School in Evansville, Indiana, is marked as closed in the official state and federal data. For a parent or resident considering the city’s school landscape, the school’s status is the central fact: it does not currently enroll students. The school served only a middle-school grade span, despite its name including “High School.” It was a regular public school within the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp, the district serving the city and surrounding county.

Because the school is no longer operating, enrollment totals, student demographics, and the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals were not reported for any recent year. The data available for academic performance comes from a single school year before the closure, when state testing was conducted for the grades the school served. On the ILEARN assessments, which measure Indiana’s academic standards, the share of students scoring at the proficient or above level was relatively low across all subjects tested. In English language arts, roughly one in five students reached that benchmark, while in mathematics, the share was smaller, around five percent. In science, about one in seven students met the bar, and in social studies, none of the tested students reached the proficient level. These numbers reflect performance from the last year the school was active and test results were reported.

The school was located on First Avenue in Evansville, a mid-sized city that functions as the commercial, medical, and cultural hub for a tri-state area that includes parts of Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. Evansville has a diversified economic base, with manufacturing in plastics, pharmaceuticals, home appliances, aluminum, and food products, along with a large healthcare sector. The city’s population has been declining modestly in recent years. Housing values in the zip code covering this area of Evansville are below both the Indiana state median and the national median, and typical rents are lower than a typical mortgage payment, reflecting a relatively affordable market compared to many parts of the country. The owner-occupied housing rate in the city is below the national average, and the median household income is below the national median, with a notable portion of the population living in poverty.

What a parent should take from this is straightforward. Harwood Career Prep High School is no longer open. The test results from its final year of operation show generally low proficiency rates, but those results offer no insight into the current educational options available at this address. Anyone considering this location for schooling would need to look at other schools in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp or consider private or charter alternatives in the area. The district itself remains active, serving the city and county, but this particular school building is not part of that current operating network. The data available is a record of what the school was, not a picture of what a family would find today.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

25.0%Cohort of 236 students · Class of 2021

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

389 schools plotted. 9 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grades 3-85%

School 5% · District 35% · ▼ 30 pts below district

▼ 35 pts below state median

English language arts

Grades 3-821%

School 21% · District 33% · ▼ 12 pts below district

▼ 16 pts below state median

Science

Grades 3-815%

School 15% · District 34% · ▼ 19 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median

Social studies

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 27% · ▼ 27 pts below district

▼ 33 pts below state median

This schoolEvansville Vanderburgh School Corp, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 7Lower-income39%Higher-income28%11 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income27%Higher-income45%18 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 7Lower-income0%Higher-income13%13 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income0%Higher-income6%6 pp gap