The top reported proficiency rate is 8% in English language arts. The lowest is 3% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Muessel Elementary School
Muessel Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as a regular public school within the South Bend Community School Corporation. The school is located on Blaine Street in South Bend, a mid-sized city that blends residential neighborhoods, a riverfront downtown, and institutional anchors like the University of Notre Dame. South Bend has experienced modest population growth over the past decade and a half, with recent estimates suggesting the city has plateaued. Housing values and rents in the area are below national medians, and the district has opened a full-time virtual school for grades four through twelve as a lasting programmatic option. The school building sits within a city where the everyday texture mixes college-town influence from Notre Dame, a working downtown with cultural institutions, and blue-collar industrial areas on the periphery.
Muessel has a total enrollment that is moderate for an elementary school, with students spread across grades from pre-kindergarten through fifth. The student body is diverse. A majority of students identify as Black, with a smaller share identifying as white, and roughly one in eight students identifying as two or more races. A substantial share of students are Hispanic. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a population with significant economic need. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available.
State assessment results from the ILEARN tests show that proficiency rates across all tested subjects are low. In math, a very small percentage of students scored at or above the proficient level. In English language arts, the share of students reaching proficiency was in the single digits. Science proficiency rates were similarly low, and social studies results for fifth graders were also very low. The comparison to other districts in St. Joseph County places Muessel in the bottom quartile for overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. A parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what academic support and intervention programs are in place.
Because Muessel serves only elementary grades, there is no high school graduation rate to report, and no chronic absenteeism data was available for this profile. No information on course access, staffing ratios, or discipline rates was provided, so those dimensions of school environment cannot be assessed here. The school is not a charter school, and its magnet or Title I status was not specified in the available data.
For a family considering Muessel Elementary, the school offers a neighborhood-based setting within a larger urban district that has recently added a virtual learning option. The peer environment reflects the demographic and economic diversity of the west side of South Bend. The academic performance data is a clear soft spot, and families would want to engage directly with the school about its curriculum, interventions, and progress monitoring to get a fuller picture of the day-to-day learning experience.
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