Muncie Central graduation rate surpasses 94 percent
By Juli Metzger—
MUNCIE, IN—What started as an idea to ease the transition to high school and launch students on a strong path to graduation has become something much bigger.
The concept behind Muncie Central High School’s Freshman Academy was straightforward: align the school’s very best teachers with first-year students at one of the most consequential moments in their education. Give freshmen a stronger sense of belonging and, ultimately, put more students on a path toward graduation and living wage employment.
Today, that idea, which was modeled after The Academies of Nashville, has grown into an approach attracting attention well beyond Muncie.
The Freshman Academy was created around the recognition that ninth grade matters. The transition from middle school to high school brings new academic expectations, greater independence and, for many young people, considerable anxiety. Students who struggle during that transition can quickly fall behind in attendance, coursework and credits toward graduation.
Muncie Community Schools decided to intervene earlier by providing extra support from the very beginning.
Taking a more proactive approach for students transitioning to high school, the district redesigned the freshman experience itself. Students were organized into smaller teams with core teachers who could get to know them, recognize problems earlier and work together to help them succeed.
The approach also placed a premium on relationships. Teachers were not simply delivering instruction; they were creating an environment where students see themselves as successful high school students.
Early indicators have been encouraging.
While attendance rates held steady, academic performance improved year over year. “The rates of students on track to graduate after their freshman year has increased,” said Phil Boltz, Director of Accountability, Reporting and Data for Muncie Community Schools. The On Track rate for the class of 2029 is 74 percent, compared to 61 percent the year before.
Another positive indicator has been an increase in the high school graduation rates, which has improved by 8 percent since 2022 to a graduation rate of 90.1 percent in 2025.
The expected 2026 Muncie Central High School graduation rate is an astounding 94.5 percent.
Muncie Community Schools continues to make progress. The district’s turnaround began in 2018, when the Indiana General Assembly authorized Ball State University to oversee MCS. Ball State appointed a seven-member school board, launching a unique and innovative partnership between a public university and a public school district.
Since the partnership began, MCS has stabilized enrollment, balanced its budgets, increased teacher pay by more than 40 percent, and developed a long-term strategy centered on a cradle-to-career approach to education. Academic outcomes have also continued to improve. Muncie Community Schools achieved its highest high school graduation rate since 2019, surpassing 90 percent, while every MCS elementary school moved into the state’s highest growth quadrant.
Those numbers matter because the ultimate objective extends far beyond freshman year. A successful ninth-grade experience can establish important habits: showing up, completing coursework, developing relationships with teachers and believing that graduation and beyond is attainable.
The academy is one part of a broader transformation underway across Muncie Community Schools, where educators are rethinking the student experience from cradle to career. Instead of taking a “business as usual approach,” MCS put years of intentional planning and thought into redesigning the student experience from cradle to career.
The effort received a significant early boost in 2024, when the BlackRock Foundation allocated $500,000 to the George and Frances Ball Foundation over two years to assist Cradle to Career Muncie in helping support the Freshman and Career Academies at Muncie Central High School.
“Thanks in part to this grant, we had the opportunity to transform the high school experience for every student who walks through our doors,” said Chris Walker, principal of Muncie Central High School.
One of the grant’s most significant elements was the creation of the Center for High School Success, which provided focused training for teachers and staff and helped lay the foundation for change. Walker also noted that many of the school’s best teachers – some of whom had previously taught upper-level students – returned to freshman classrooms, to make an even larger impact.
Now, other educators are paying attention. MCS recently received an Award of Excellence from the National School Public Relations Association for its video about the Freshman Academy.
What began in Muncie as a practical response to an important question – How do we give freshmen a better start? – is becoming an illustration with implications that reach far beyond one Indiana community.
There will always be some apprehension associated with the first day of high school. The hallways are bigger. Expectations are higher. Everything feels new.
But the Freshman Academy rests on a simple proposition: The transition to high school does not have to be something students navigate alone.
“For me, the experience invigorated my role as an educator, as I got to work more closely with my colleagues and grow as an educator through our work together,” said Muncie Central High School Social Studies and Freshman Academy teacher Katherine Hughes. “We provided interventions to students to help them succeed. All of this helped the classroom culture, as well as the school culture of the building.”
Surrounding students early with excellent teachers, meaningful relationships, and clear expectations means freshman year is the catalyst for a stronger start to the high school experience.
It can become the foundation for what comes next.
Juli Metzger is a former educator and newspaper editor and publisher. She is Past Chair of the Indiana Youth Institute, and on the C2Cmuncie.org Collaborative Network Leadership team.
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