The top reported proficiency rate is 12% in English language arts. The lowest is 3% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Daniel Hale Williams Elem Sch
Daniel Hale Williams Elementary School serves kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school in the Gary Community School Corporation. The school sits in the central part of Gary, a Rust Belt city that has experienced dramatic population loss and economic restructuring since its mid-20th-century peak. The student body is comparatively small for a K-5 building, and the community it draws from faces concentrated disadvantage.
State assessment results from the ILEARN tests show that proficiency rates across all tested subjects are low. In math, about one in fourteen students reached the proficient or above level. In English language arts, roughly one in eight did. Science proficiency was lower still, and on the fifth-grade social studies test the proficient share was very small. The school’s participation rate in state testing was high, meaning nearly all enrolled students took the assessments, so the results reflect the full student population. The overall proficiency index across tested subjects sits in the bottom quartile among districts in Lake County. A parent considering the school would want to discuss with the staff how instruction and intervention are structured, and what recent trends look like, as only one year of comparable data was available for this analysis.
The student body is overwhelmingly Black, with a modest Hispanic share and a very small number of white, Asian, and multiracial students. More than half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of low household income. The school serves a neighborhood within a city where, according to publicly reported estimates, roughly one-third of homes are unoccupied or abandoned. Housing values in the surrounding zip code are well below state and national medians, and rents are modest. The area’s economy remains anchored by U.S. Steel’s Gary Works, though its workforce has shrunk substantially, and newer investments such as the Hard Rock Casino have not reversed the broader population decline.
The district itself operates under unusual governance. After a state takeover that was the first in Indiana history, the Gary Community School Corporation is overseen by the Distressed Unit Appeals Board, and the school board is appointed rather than elected. Parents do not have a direct vote on board members. District enrollment has declined sharply in recent years, a pattern that affects school budgets, staffing, and the range of programs offered schoolwide. No information was available on programming such as special education services, English learner supports, or course access—these are areas a parent would need to ask the school about directly because they were not in the data.
Because Williams Elementary serves only primary grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and state testing covers all core subjects for these grades. The school type is regular, meaning it does not operate as a charter or magnet. No chronic absenteeism or discipline data were found in the sources used for this account.
For a family living in Gary, Williams Elementary is the neighborhood school for its attendance zone. The academic outcomes are well below state averages, and the district’s instability adds a layer of uncertainty. A parent who values high test scores or a wide menu of enrichment programs would likely look elsewhere. A parent who wants a school close to home, with a familiar environment where their child knows other children from the block, may find it a reasonable fit—but they should expect to be proactive about understanding what extra academic help is available and how the school is working to raise achievement. Given the district’s financial and governance challenges, the trajectory of the school is something to watch over the coming years.
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