What if Indiana used Iowa’s classification method?
An enrollment-based look at competitive equity: account for free and reduced-price lunch eligibility, then compare two ways to place schools into six classes.
Iowa method · Smaller 6A and 1A · The class sizes, movement lists and school alignment below reflect the selected projection.
Independent scenario · Prepared October 12, 2026 · Not an official IHSAA proposal
316schools classified
30 / 64 / 64 / 64 / 64 / 30schools in 6A through 1A
For a school with 1,000 students in grades 9–11 and a 37% FRL rate, the adjusted enrollment is 852. Schools are ranked by this number from largest to smallest, without a success-factor adjustment.
Two choices for class balance
The Iowa formula supplies the adjustment. Class sizes are a separate choice. This projection places 30 schools each in 6A and 1A, and 64 each in 2A–5A. Changes reflect both adjusted enrollment and class sizes.
“Current class” means the official class in the supplied Indiana classification document, including success factor. This analysis uses its full 316-school field, not just the tournament draw. Actual official class counts can differ from the projection’s target sizes.
Data assumptions and missing FRL information
Public and charter schools use their corporation’s 2025–26 FRL rate as a proxy. Matched private schools use the IDOE FY2026 school nutrition report. Corporation-wide rates and NSLP/CEP eligibility are imperfect substitutes for school-specific income-based FRL data.
Culver Academies, Park Tudor and Evansville Reitz Memorial have no matched FRL entry. Their grades 9–11 enrollments are left unadjusted. This is a missing-data assumption, not a finding that their FRL rate is zero; different rates could change their placement and the cutoffs for other schools.
Assignments use unrounded adjusted enrollment; ties are ordered alphabetically. Displayed values are rounded to two decimals.
02 / Enrollment distribution
Most schools sit toward the smaller end
The curves trace the actual, skewed distribution rather than a symmetrical bell curve. Each dot represents one school. Both graphs use the same scale, but the current graph counts grades 9–12 while the Iowa graph adjusts grades 9–11. The Iowa graph depicts the original smaller-6A-and-1A projection; the school tables and movement lists reflect your selected projection.
Current classification · Select the graph to view full size.Iowa-method scenario · Select the graph to view full size.
03 / Who moves?
A new balance across the classes
Grouped by each school’s new Iowa-method class. Parentheses show its current official class.
Schools in Higher Class 123
Class 6A
Chesterton (5A)
McCutcheon (5A)
Class 5A
Bedford North Lawrence (4A)
Columbia City (4A)
Columbus East (4A)
East Central (4A)
Evansville F.J. Reitz (4A)
Evansville Harrison (4A)
Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger (4A)
Fort Wayne North Side (4A)
Greenwood Community (4A)
Hammond Morton (4A)
Hobart (4A)
Indianapolis Shortridge (4A)
Jasper (4A)
Jennings County (4A)
Kokomo (4A)
Lebanon (4A)
Lowell (4A)
Martinsville (4A)
Mishawaka (4A)
Mooresville (4A)
Muncie Central (4A)
New Haven (4A)
Northridge (4A)
Richmond (4A)
Roncalli (4A)
Shelbyville (4A)
Silver Creek (4A)
South Bend Riley (4A)
Class 4A
Angola (3A)
Batesville (3A)
Corydon Central (3A)
Crawfordsville (3A)
Edgewood (3A)
Evansville Mater Dei (3A)
Evansville Reitz Memorial (3A)
Fairfield (3A)
Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran (3A)
Gibson Southern (3A)
Greensburg (3A)
Hamilton Heights (3A)
Hammond Bishop Noll (3A)
Heritage Christian (3A)
Illiana Christian (3A)
Indian Creek (3A)
Lawrenceburg (3A)
Mishawaka Marian (3A)
Mississinewa (3A)
Mt. Vernon (3A)
New Castle (3A)
Norwell (3A)
Scottsburg (3A)
South Bend Washington (3A)
Tri-West Hendricks (3A)
Vincennes Lincoln (3A)
Washington (3A)
West Lafayette (3A)
West Noble (3A)
Western (3A)
Class 3A
Alexandria Monroe (2A)
Boone Grove (2A)
Bremen (2A)
Brown County (2A)
Brownstown Central (2A)
Cascade (2A)
Christel House (2A)
Covenant Christian (2A)
Eastern (Greentown) (2A)
Frankton (2A)
Greencastle (2A)
Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter (2A)
Knox (2A)
Lakeland (2A)
Lapel (2A)
Monrovia (2A)
North Posey (2A)
Northeastern (2A)
Oak Hill (2A)
Park Tudor (2A)
Peru (2A)
Pike Central (2A)
Providence (2A)
Rensselaer Central (2A)
Rochester Community (2A)
Salem (2A)
Seeger (2A)
Southmont (2A)
Tipton (2A)
Triton Central (2A)
West Vigo (2A)
Class 2A
Carroll (Flora) (1A)
Churubusco (1A)
Clinton Prairie (1A)
Cloverdale (1A)
Crawford County (1A)
Faith Christian (1A)
Forest Park (1A)
Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian (1A)
Fountain Central (1A)
Fremont (1A)
Henryville (1A)
Knightstown (1A)
Lafayette Central Catholic (1A)
Madison-Grant (1A)
Milan (1A)
Monroe Central (1A)
North Decatur (1A)
North Judson-San Pierre (1A)
North Knox (1A)
North Newton (1A)
Parke Heritage (1A)
Riverton Parke (1A)
Sheridan (1A)
South Adams (1A)
South Central (Union Mills) (1A)
Taylor (1A)
Tecumseh (1A)
Trinity Lutheran (1A)
Union County (1A)
West Washington (1A)
Whitko (1A)
Winamac Community (1A)
Schools in Lower Class 6
Class 5A
Decatur Central (6A)
Fort Wayne Northrop (6A)
Merrillville (6A)
Portage (6A)
Whiteland Community (6A)
Class 3A
Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (4A)
04 / The full classification
Find your school’s new class
Listed by adjusted enrollment, largest first within each class. Gold highlights identify the success-factor comparisons above.