The top reported proficiency rate is 26% in Math. The lowest is 12% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Margaret R Brown Elementary School
Margaret R Brown Elementary School is a regular public school in Seymour, Indiana, serving kindergarten through fifth grade. It is part of the Seymour Community Schools district. The school's enrollment would be considered moderately sized for an elementary school. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a substantial white minority and smaller shares of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. A significant majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which gives a sense of the economic context many families bring.
On the state's ILEARN assessments, proficiency rates across tested subjects are well below the midpoint when compared with other districts in Jackson County. In math, roughly a quarter of students scored at the proficient or above level. In English language arts, that figure drops to about one in nine students. Science proficiency was around one in six, and on the social studies assessment, taken by fifth graders, about one in five met the bar. The school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts in Jackson County. These results are a soft spot, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what instructional supports and interventions are in place.
Data on chronic absenteeism, discipline, staffing ratios, and course access were not available for this school. The absence of those fields may simply reflect the grade band—elementary schools often have less publicly reported information on course offerings than secondary schools—but the lack means a parent would need to ask the school directly about attendance patterns and the learning environment.
Seymour itself is an industrial and commercial hub in southern Indiana. Manufacturing and distribution anchor the local economy, with automotive-parts maker Aisin employing many workers. The city has experienced notable demographic change, drawing substantial immigration from Guatemala since the late 1980s, and the Hispanic share of the population has grown sharply. Downtown still features two active rail lines crossing, and the city holds an annual Oktoberfest. Housing values in the area are modestly below the state average, and the estimated monthly mortgage payment for a typical home is around the national median household income level, making homeownership feasible for many working families. The city has seen growth that has at times outpaced local capacity to manage it, a point raised in community conversations.
At the district level, Seymour Community Schools has launched a full-time virtual learning program called Owl Tech, serving grades five through twelve as a permanent alternative to in-person instruction. That may be relevant for families who want a different educational setting for their child in later years.
For a family considering Margaret R Brown Elementary, this is a school where the academic proficiency numbers are a clear concern, and the peer environment is majority Hispanic with many students from lower-income households. Seymour offers a rooted, working-class community with a modest cost of living, but the school's academic standing is below what many of its county peers show. There is no graduation rate to report because the school ends at fifth grade, and no information on special education or English learner populations was available in the data, so those are additional topics a parent would want to ask the school about directly.
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