The top reported proficiency rate is 48% in Science. The lowest is 18% in Social studies.
Original Research by School Decision on Carlisle Elementary School
Carlisle Elementary School serves a small, rural community in Sullivan County, Indiana, as the elementary arm of the Southwest School Corporation. The school runs from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and is the kind of place where a young child can attend the same school for their entire primary career before moving on to a middle school elsewhere in the district. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a very small Hispanic population and even fewer Asian and multiracial students. A substantial share of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which signals that many families face economic challenges.
The community itself is tiny and unusual. Carlisle is dominated by the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, a state prison that makes up a large portion of the town’s counted population. Outside the prison, Carlisle is a quiet, low-density residential town with a library and a town hall but very little commercial activity. The population has been slowly declining for years, and no major new housing or development projects have been publicly reported. Housing is notably affordable, with home values well below both the state and national averages, though the local economy appears limited. A parent moving here would be choosing a very small, rural setting with a stable but shrinking base.
Academically, Carlisle Elementary presents a mixed picture. On the state’s ILEARN assessments, math proficiency was above the district average and ranked in the top quartile among the handful of school districts in Sullivan County. That is a genuine relative strength. English language arts proficiency was lower, however, and fifth-grade social studies results were quite poor, with fewer than one in five students scoring proficient. Science results were a bit stronger, roughly in the middle of the pack. The overall proficiency index for the school, which averages performance across all tested subjects and grades, was the highest among the three county districts, though it still sat well below half of students reaching proficiency. A parent would want to ask which subjects the school emphasizes and what support is available for reading and writing, especially for students who are not yet meeting the bar.
The school’s grade band means there is no high school graduation rate to report, and no state testing data exists for the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten grades. Chronic absenteeism data was also not available. The district itself, Southwest School Corporation, has not reported any major recent changes such as referendums, curriculum overhauls, or construction projects, so the school appears to be operating in a stable, quiet administrative environment.
For a family that values a very small, rural elementary school with a tight-knit feel and modest housing costs, Carlisle Elementary fits that description. The math results suggest the school is doing something well in that subject relative to its neighbors. But the weaker language arts and social studies scores, combined with the area’s economic constraints and population decline, make this a school where a parent should be prepared to supplement learning at home or seek extra support if their child struggles with reading or writing. The school is not a high-flying academic powerhouse, but it is a functioning neighborhood elementary that holds up reasonably well within its own small county context.
See more original research from School Decision →