The top reported proficiency rate is 31% in Social studies. The lowest is 4% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Bon Air Middle School
Bon Air Middle School serves grades six through eight in the Kokomo School Corporation, a public district in Howard County, Indiana. It is a regular public school with a student body that is predominantly white, with a substantial share of students who are Black, two or more races, or Hispanic. The school draws from a community that is the core of a mid-sized industrial city where manufacturing, especially automotive, anchors the local economy alongside healthcare and retail. Kokomo’s housing market offers relatively affordable homes compared to state and national benchmarks, and the city has seen modest population stability and gradual property value appreciation. The broader district did not have publicly reported recent changes like referendums or closures that would shift the landscape for families.
On state assessments, Bon Air Middle School’s academic results are an area a parent would want to look into carefully. Its overall proficiency index, which averages performance across tested subjects and grades, places it in the bottom quartile relative to other districts in Howard County. The school participates in Indiana’s ILEARN assessments for math, English language arts, and science, and results show that the share of students reaching proficiency was well below half in every subject. Math proficiency was very low, English language arts proficiency was higher but still limited, and science proficiency followed a similar pattern. A social studies assessment from an older, now-replaced test showed a different result, but that data is from several years prior and reflects a different testing regime, so it is not comparable to current performance. Participation rates on the current tests were high, which means the results reflect nearly all enrolled students.
The school appears to serve a population with high economic need. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. This economic context can bring additional challenges and also draws supplemental resources, though specific Title I status was not provided in the data. Information on special education and English learner populations was not available from the school’s civil rights data, so a parent may wish to ask the school directly about the support structures for students with individualized education plans or those learning English.
Bon Air is one of the smaller middle schools in its district, with a modest enrollment spread fairly evenly across sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. The school’s setting is in a residential area of Kokomo, a city where auto-oriented travel is the norm. Sidewalk coverage is incomplete in older neighborhoods, though the city has a recreational trail network. The downtown area serves as the civic core, but schools are spread out on separate campuses. No program offerings, such as magnet or specialized academies, were listed for Bon Air in the data. Extracurriculars and course access information was also not included, so families interested in the breadth of electives or after-school activities would need to contact the school directly.
For a parent or resident considering Bon Air Middle School, the picture is defined by stark contrasts: the school sits in a community with stable manufacturing roots and affordable housing, yet its students’ performance on state assessments is very low across tested subjects. The high proportion of students eligible for economic support is a relevant factor, as schools with similar demographics sometimes show different results, but the data here does not provide other comparison schools. The lack of published program offerings or recent district initiatives means a family should proactively ask about academic interventions, advanced coursework, and enrichment. This is a school where the raw outcome data asks the most direct questions: what is being done to raise proficiency, and how does the school support its students academically in the face of significant economic need.
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