The top reported proficiency rate is 65% in Math. The lowest is 50% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Demotte Elementary School
DeMotte Elementary School is a regular public school serving pre-kindergarten through third grade in the Kankakee Valley School Corporation. Because it covers only the earliest elementary grades, it does not produce a graduation rate or other outcomes that apply to secondary schools. The school’s enrollment is substantial for a building serving just five grade levels, and the student body is predominantly white, with a notable Hispanic presence. Almost half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that signals a significant working-class and lower-income demographic within the community.
State testing results from the ILEARN assessment are available for third grade, the only tested grade in this school. In math, a solid majority of third graders met or exceeded the state’s proficiency standard. In English language arts, roughly half of students reached that threshold. The school’s overall proficiency index across tested subjects lands in the top quartile relative to the two districts in Jasper County, a strong performance for a small-county comparison set. The narrowness of that comparison universe—only two districts—means the top-quartile placement carries less weight than it would in a larger set, but it still indicates that DeMotte Elementary is the higher-performing of the two when measured by test scores.
The community of DeMotte is a rural small town in Jasper County’s Keener Township, with a modest but steady growth trend. The town has a Dutch American heritage visible in its annual Touch of Dutch Festival, and its downtown holds a mix of small businesses, restaurants, and a specialty meat shop. U.S. Route 231 and Indiana State Road 10 run through town, providing regional road access. Civic life centers on Spencer Park, which hosts a weekly summer market and outdoor movie nights, and on the branch of the Jasper County Public Library. No public transit system was identified, and walkability is limited to the downtown core and park areas. Housing values in the area sit above the national median home price, though mortgage rates at the time of this analysis were elevated, placing homeownership under some pressure.
The elementary school is located within the town of DeMotte itself, so families with young children have a school close to town center. However, the district’s intermediate school, middle school, and high school are all situated in Wheatfield Township, outside DeMotte’s immediate downtown. Private school options within DeMotte include Covenant Christian High School and DeMotte Christian School, which serves pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, giving families some choice at the elementary and middle levels without leaving town.
The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes such as a referendum, curriculum overhaul, or property-tax shift. That absence does not mean the district is static, only that no such developments were publicly documented at the time of research. For families looking into growth context, the town is adding population at a modest annual rate, and recent renovations to the town’s park and golf course suggest ongoing community investment, though no large new housing developments were specifically identified.
This school fits a family seeking a solid early-elementary foundation in a rural small-town setting where the peer environment is predominantly white and middle-income to lower-income, and where third-grade test results are above the local county average. The pre-kindergarten through third grade configuration means children will transition to a different campus for fourth grade, which parents with young children will want to factor into their planning. The reading and math scores, especially the gap between stronger math and moderate English language arts results, are worth a conversation with the school to understand how early literacy is supported.
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