NCES CCD 2024-25 17 schools IN

Best-Resourced Schools in Carmel, IN

Compiled from official source data by .

17 public K-12 schools in Carmel from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
17
Schools
16,834
Students
49.9/100
Avg Resource Index
16.4:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Large system with a dominant campus

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Carmel has more public-school enrollment than 91% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Carmel sits near the top of the national city distribution by public-school enrollment, while Carmel High School alone enrolls 31.1% of local students. The city total therefore does not describe a uniform market: one large campus materially shapes the aggregate, and the remaining schools operate at a different scale. Read the ranked table alongside each campus profile rather than treating the city mean as a typical school.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

7 of Carmel's 17 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

The composite and staffing measures point in different directions

Carmel's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 87th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 39th percentile. The 48-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.

City enrollment
Top 9%
School count
Top 19%
Resource Index average
87th percentile
Teacher staffing
39th percentile

Carmel High School accounts for 31.1% of all Carmel public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Carmel-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Carmel school enrollment varies 21× across entities

Carmel school enrollment ranges from 248 students (lowest) to 5,239 students (highest), a spread of 4,991 students. That spread is wider than typical and predicts noticeable gaps in service quality between the highest and lowest areas. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Carmel student-teacher ratio is 16.4:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Carmel is typically wider than the Carmel-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

2 of Carmel's 17 listed schools are charters

12% of the city's listed public-school campuses are reported as charter schools in NCES CCD. Charter status identifies a different governance arrangement; it does not establish admissions availability, academic quality, or the share of city students enrolled in those campuses. Open each school record to compare enrollment and staffing directly.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

# School Score
1. West Clay Elementary School 63
2. Cherry Tree Elementary School 62
3. College Wood Elementary School 62
4. Prairie Trace Elementary School 60
5. Smoky Row Elementary School 60
6. Carmel Elementary School 59
7. Clay Center Elementary School 59
8. Mohawk Trails Elementary School 57
9. Forest Dale Elementary School 55
10. Towne Meadow Elementary School 46
11. Creekside Middle School 45
12. Carmel Middle School 45
13. Carmel High School 44
14. Clay Middle School 42
15. Woodbrook Elementary School 42
16. Options Westfield 27
17. Indiana Agriculture and Technology 21

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Carmel

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Creekside Middle School 59.6/100
  2. 2 College Wood Elementary School 59.3/100
  3. 3 West Clay Elementary School 58.5/100
  4. 4 Prairie Trace Elementary School 56.5/100
  5. 5 Carmel Elementary School 55.1/100

What do families ask about schools in Carmel?

Which Carmel school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

West Clay Elementary School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Carmel schools in this federal-data comparison at 63/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Carmel, IN? ▼

Carmel has 17 public schools with a total enrollment of 16,834 students. 2 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 16.4:1.

Other Cities in Indiana

Indianapolis
234 schools
Fort Wayne
75 schools
Evansville
41 schools
South Bend
36 schools
Elkhart
30 schools
Bloomington
26 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Indiana →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.