Steel City Academy
Gary · IN · Steel City Academy · Public charter · K-12 combined
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Excel Center - Gary → Calumet New Tech High School → Gary Career Center → Gary Lighthouse Charter School → Thea Bowman Leadership Academy → West Side Leadership Academy → 21st Century Charter Sch of Gary → Calumet Christian School →📋 At a glance
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 33% of US high schools
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 84% (Bottom 33% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Steel City Academy compares for families
What families should know about Steel City Academy.
- ▸ LocallyIN students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+8 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Excel Center - Gary, Calumet New Tech High School, Gary Career Center and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
Bottom 33% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
👩🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC
Teacher experience & reliability
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
High-poverty school
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -11.5%/year, projecting from 2024's 286 students:
≈ 130 fewer students by 2029 — a real revenue/relevance risk worth getting ahead of.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue at risk
At $13,860 per student in district revenue, the 130 students projected to be lost by 2029 represent ≈ $1,801,800/year in funding at risk.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Nearby high schools — the local competition
The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excel Center - Gary Gary |
Public · charter | 1.4 | 125 | +4.2% |
| Calumet New Tech High School Gary |
Public | 2.2 | 620 | -0.3% |
| Gary Career Center Gary |
Public | 2.8 | — | — |
| Gary Lighthouse Charter School Gary |
Public · charter | 3.1 | 444 | -2.4% |
| Thea Bowman Leadership Academy Gary |
Public · charter | 3.1 | 250 | -12.3% |
| West Side Leadership Academy Gary |
Public | 3.2 | 1,227 | +0.1% |
| 21st Century Charter Sch of Gary Gary |
Public · charter | 3.4 | 380 | -9.5% |
| Calumet Christian School Griffith |
Private | 3.5 | 178 | +16.3% |