21 public K-12 schools in Gary from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Gary has more public-school enrollment than 83% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Gary's average Resource Investment Index falls in the lower portion of the 4,487-city comparison set. The index is a resource snapshot, not an academic grade: it reflects the federal staffing, counselor, gifted-program, and attendance fields available for local campuses. The most useful next step is to open the individual schools below and identify which component is pulling each score down, because the same city average can hide very different campus-level constraints.
Gary's list includes 8 elementary, 2 middle, and 4 high-school campuses, plus 7 combined-grade records. The city average spans every major grade stage, so the ranked table is more informative when read within level than as one interchangeable queue.
86.0% of enrollment in reporting Gary schools is eligible for free lunch, while the city list spans 10 districts. That pairing makes a citywide average especially easy to misread: the need measure follows students, but staffing decisions, calendars, program rules, and federal allocations are administered through separate district structures. The 36-point gap between Calumet New Tech High School and Daniel Hale Williams Elem Sch shows how much reported resource capacity can vary inside the same municipal label. Compare schools within the same district first, then use the city view to see how those local systems differ.
Gary school enrollment ranges from 45 students (lowest) to 1,232 students (highest), a spread of 1,187 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
The reported share is at least 75%, indicating a high concentration of measured economic need. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Each school district has independent budgeting, hiring, and service delivery authority, and the sheer count here puts it in the extreme tail of fragmentation nationally. The fragmentation reflects historical patterns of inter-municipal boundary lines that pre-date modern city growth, students in different parts of the same city can attend different districts with different per-pupil spending, calendars, and graduation requirements. Per-region variation is largest in fragmented systems because each school district sets its own budget, contracts, and priorities without higher-level coordination above the regulatory floor.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
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 Gary is typically wider than the Gary-aggregate figure suggests.
38% 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. | Calumet New Tech High School | 53 |
| 2. | Excel Center - Gary | 52 |
| 3. | Bailly Middle School | 51 |
| 4. | Gary Middle College | 43 |
| 5. | Gary Lighthouse Charter School | 38 |
| 6. | West Side Leadership Academy | 36 |
| 7. | Banneker Elementary at Marquette | 35 |
| 8. | Gary Virtual Academy | 35 |
| 9. | Lake Ridge New Tech Middle School | 33 |
| 10. | 21st Century Charter Sch of Gary | 32 |
| 11. | Gary Middle School | 32 |
| 12. | Longfellow New Tech Elementary Sch | 31 |
| 13. | Charter School of the Dunes | 28 |
| 14. | Steel City Academy | 26 |
| 15. | Aspire Charter Academy | 24 |
| 16. | Thea Bowman Leadership Academy | 22 |
| 17. | Glen Park Acad for Excel in Lrn | 19 |
| 18. | Frankie Woods Mccullough Academy | 18 |
| 19. | Mary M Bethune Early Child Dev Ctr | 18 |
| 20. | Daniel Hale Williams Elem Sch | 17 |
| 21. | Beveridge Elementary School | 17 |
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.
Calumet New Tech High School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Gary schools in this federal-data comparison at 53/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Gary has 21 public schools with a total enrollment of 11,157 students. 8 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 17.4:1.
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.
