The top reported proficiency rate is 60% in Math. The lowest is 44% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Jane Ball Elementary School
Jane Ball Elementary School serves young learners from prekindergarten through second grade in Cedar Lake, Indiana, as part of the Hanover Community School Corporation. Because the school covers only the earliest grades, many of the metrics used to evaluate older schools do not apply here. There is no high school graduation rate because the school does not serve those grades, and state testing data comes from a single year when students in tested grades were assessed.
On the 2021-22 ILEARN assessments, Jane Ball’s third graders posted results that, when looked at across tested subjects, placed the school among the highest-performing in Lake County relative to other elementary schools. Mathematics proficiency was reported for a substantial share of tested students, and English language arts proficiency was also at a level that many neighboring schools would consider strong. Science results from that same year were somewhat lower. Social studies data was available only from an older test administration and reflects a different assessment framework, so direct comparisons are not straightforward. Still, a parent may want to ask the school how current trends in science and social studies instruction compare to those in math and reading.
The student body is predominantly white, with Hispanic students making up a meaningful share and smaller numbers of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, a figure that is moderate for the region. Information on special education and English learner populations was not available in the data we reviewed, so a parent interested in those supports may wish to ask the school directly.
The school occupies a single floor plan in a suburban residential town. Cedar Lake is a commuter community with deep roots as a weekend retreat for Chicago residents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was lined with hotels. Today it is growing steadily, with a population that has risen substantially over the past two decades. The town’s civic life centers on the Town Complex at Morse and Constitution Avenues, which includes parks, lakeshore access, the Town Hall, and the Museum at Lassen’s Resort. The lake itself provides public recreational access. The built environment is spread out, not organized around a traditional walkable downtown. Many residents commute out of town for work, and the recent opening of the Munster/Dyer rail station offers a new transit option for those heading to the Chicago area.
Jane Ball is one of two elementary schools in the Hanover district, which also operates a middle school and a high school. We looked for recent district-level changes such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or facility projects but found little of lasting impact publicly reported in the past several years. The district appears stable on the surface.
For a family with a very young child, the school offers a focused early elementary environment in a growing suburban town with a lakefront identity. Because the school stops at second grade, a parent will want to consider how the transition to the district’s next school works and what the instructional approach at that school looks like. The academic picture from the available testing data is positive, especially in math, but covers only a narrow slice of what the school does day to day. The school’s size and grade structure mean that class sizes and teacher attention may be different from what a parent would find at a larger K-5 building, though specific staffing ratios were not available in the data. A visit to see the classrooms and a conversation with the principal about early literacy and numeracy instruction would fill in the gaps that the data leaves open.
See more original research from School Decision →