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Shopping Guide News Wednesday, June 3, 2026
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Caston recognized in Ball State study By LEAH SANDER Staff Writer
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Caston School Corp. Superintendent Angie Miller believes extra reading and math assistance for the corporation’s students are what has helped them do well on the state ILEARN test and subsequently got the corporation recognized in a recent Ball State University study. Caston was mentioned in the study “A ‘Value-Added’ Measure of School Performance in Indiana,” completed by Dr. Michael J. Hicks and Dr. Dagney Faulk of the university’s Center for Business and Economic Research. Hicks and Faulk named Caston as one of 10 school corporations in the state which improved their overall “value” based on eighth graders’ ILEARN scores from 2022 and 2025. That value was based off of Caston students doing well on the ILEARN despite having some barriers which could have hindered their progress. Miller noted Caston has many low-income students. She said the corporation has added extra educational interventions at the middle school as well as continued extra help for kids at the elementary level.
SEMINAR — Eighth graders at Caston Junior High School participate in a seminar in their English language arts class. Photo provided by Caston School Corp.
“If we just teach the same thing to everybody, that’s not going to make the improvements (needed), so I think there’s been a very concerted effort here to meet students where they are,” said Miller. She added she thinks Caston’s 830 students in K-12 all being in the same building has helped educational results. “If you look (at what corporations are recognized in the
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study,) a lot of these schools are small, rural (ones), and I just truly believe that we know these kids,” said Miller. “We have far fewer kids that fall through the cracks because we know our kids, and then when you’re in a building that’s K-12 under one roof, I mean sometimes our secondary people reach back (to help elementary students), elementary people reach up to (help)
the secondary kids.” She added with people talking over the years about consolidating smaller public schools, the Ball State study results showed that “small rural schools are a great place to educate your kids.” Miller said Caston staff will continue to “keep working to get better, and first of all, building those relationships and then looking at data, so that we
know where our kids are.” She emphasized Caston’s students doing well was due to “a team effort” among staff. Miller added the study “was a great way to recognize our teachers for their hard work.” “Sometimes you don’t get the good news,” she said. “You get the bad news, and this was something that gave them recognition, and I’m just very proud of them.”
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