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Portage, Indiana - 11 schools
An equity score of 47/100 ranks Portage Township Schools #210 of 373 districts in Indiana (state average 50). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $11,452 per pupil, Portage Township Schools ranks #230 of 406 Indiana districts by per-pupil spending (Indiana districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
6,742
Total Enrollment
11
Schools
$11,452
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Middle
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Portage Township Schools operates 11 public schools serving 6,742 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Indiana. The school portfolio breaks down into 8 elementary, 2 middle, 1 high schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Porter County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $11,452 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the lower half of 406 Indiana districts by per-pupil spending. See how Indiana compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 22.8% local, 65.1% state, and 12.2% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 47/100, ranked #210 of 373 in Indiana against a state average of 50, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 11 schools offering Advanced Placement (14 AP courses district-wide), a 432.1:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 24.2% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 49.9% White, 27.7% Hispanic or Latino, 16.0% African American across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Wallace Aylesworth Elementary, with a diversity index of 68.6/100.
Its largest campus is Portage High School, enrolling 2,163 students (33% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Paul Saylor Elementary School, at 274 students, a 8x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Portage High School accounts for 32.1% of all Portage Township Schools student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Portage Township Schools-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Portage Township Schools school enrollment varies 7.9× across entities
Portage Township Schools school enrollment ranges from 274 students (lowest) to 2,163 students (highest), a spread of 1,889 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous campus portfolio, most districts have a wider mix of school sizes. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Portage Township Schools has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 58.6% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Areas above 75% eligibility receive concentration grants on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Portage Township Schools student-counselor ratio is 432:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Portage Township Schools chronic absenteeism rate is 24.2% — near the typical range (US average ~28) — aligned with the national post-pandemic baseline of roughly 28% chronic absenteeism
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Variation between sub-units within Portage Township Schools is typically wider than the Portage Township Schools-aggregate figure suggests.