The top reported proficiency rate is 35% in Math. The lowest is 33% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on John W Kendall Elem School
John W Kendall Elementary School serves students in prekindergarten through fourth grade in Marion, Indiana, as part of Marion Community Schools. It is a regular public school and sits on the western side of the city.
Marion itself is a Grant County industrial and civic hub that has experienced a long population decline, a pattern visible in census counts across recent decades. The city is home to Indiana Wesleyan University, Marion General Hospital, and a VA health care campus, and its economy holds onto manufacturing work in automobile parts, plastics, and glass. The area promotes its low cost of living and affordable housing; home prices here are well below national medians, which families moving into the district may find significant.
Kendall is a mid-sized elementary school for its grade band, serving a student body that is predominantly white, with a sizable Hispanic population and a similarly sized group identifying as two or more races. Black students make up a minority of enrollment, and Asian students make up a very small share. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, placing this school in a high-poverty context. Data on the number of students with individualized education plans or English learner status was not available in the materials provided.
Academically, the school participates in Indiana’s ILEARN state assessments, which cover grades three through eight. On the most recent state testing results available, Kendall’s proficiency rates in math, English language arts, and science all clustered around the low third of students. This places the school above the midpoint for overall proficiency among districts in Grant County, but still at a level where a large share of students are not meeting the state’s proficiency benchmarks. The proficiency index figure, which averages all tested subjects and grades, came in above the median of the county’s five districts with reported data. A parent should note that these numbers represent a single year’s snapshot and that a school serving a high-poverty population often faces different challenges than one in an affluent area.
Because Kendall only serves grades up to fourth, there is no high school graduation rate to report. The school does not have data on chronic absenteeism, nor were any disciplinary records, staffing ratios, or course access figures available in the source material. The district itself did not have a recent brief of major changes or strategic initiatives to share, so the narrative around district direction is thin.
The community context is a mixed one. Marion’s downtown core along the Mississinewa River includes the Grant County Courthouse, a public library, and a riverwalk that leads to Matter Park. The Marion High School campus is a notable cultural anchor, housing a community auditorium and the Marion Philharmonic Orchestra. For a family, the area offers a low-cost housing market, a small-city feel, and a set of civic amenities, but also a population that has been shrinking and a tax base that may constrain school funding.
For a parent or resident trying to understand what this school offers, the picture is straightforward. Kendall is a neighborhood elementary in a financially modest district, serving a diverse-by-race student body that is heavily low-income. Its state test results show that roughly two out of three students are not yet reaching grade-level proficiency in the core subjects, a figure that compares middlingly among Grant County’s other districts. The school does not have the kind of elective or enrichment programs that a larger or more affluent school might advertise, but for the primary years, the focus is on foundational literacy and math. Families considering this school would want to speak with current parents and the school administration directly about academic support, classroom climate, and how the school addresses the needs of its many students who qualify for meal assistance. The absence of data on special education and English learner services means those topics warrant a direct conversation with the school as well.
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