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If you could change one rule at Buford Garner Elementary, what would it be?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
344
Elementary
DISTRICT 333 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·IOWA CITY COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 191470002133
Buford Garner Elementary
80 Birch Street, North Liberty, IA 52317 · (319) 688-1190 · Johnson County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY22-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL344 STUDENTS
C-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 23% of Iowa public elementary schools
- C+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Iowa public elementary schools
Student : Teacher
13.5:1
25 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.4:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
31%
107 students
DISTRICT 45% · STATE 41%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 16 | 5% |
| Kindergarten | 38 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 56 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 56 | 16% |
| Grade 3 | 58 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 57 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 63 | 18% |
This year's kindergarten class (38) is 40% smaller than its 5th grade class (63).
Student demographics
58%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 66% · STATE 48% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
66.3%
IA avg 73.6% . -4.5pp since 2023
Math
72.7%
IA avg 70.9% . +3.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 66 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 73 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Iowa schools, those numbers are about 74 and 71. Reading and writing scores are down about 5 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 3 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 66.3% | 72.7% |
| 2023-24 | 70.8% | 69.6% |
% Proficient, all students and all tested grades.
Source: ISASP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
68.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
76.4%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-7.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 69% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 76% typical for Iowa schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Iowa's top nor bottom 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Buford Garner Elementary
Buford Garner Elementary's state test result (68.8% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buford Garner Elementary this school | 344 | 31.1% | 68.8% |
| North Bend Elementary North Liberty | 326 | 30.4% | 77.6% |
| Pierce Elementary School Cedar Rapids | 334 | 32.9% | 71.6% |
| South Prairie Elementary Grimes | 436 | 30.3% | N/A |
| Herbert Hoover Elementary School Bettendorf | 359 | 33.7% | 71.3% |
| Prairie View Elementary School Cedar Rapids | 430 | 35.6% | 84.8% |
Matched among Iowa elementary schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Buford Garner Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Johnson County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 68.8% | #356 of 564 | #18 of 28 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 72.7% | #344 of 564 ▲ 39 | #12 of 28 ▲ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 66.3% | #390 of 564 ▼ 111 | #19 of 28 ▼ 3 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 344 | #301 of 705 | #11 of 30 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.5:1 | #286 of 561 | #15 of 23 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 58.5% | #152 of 561 | #16 of 23 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 31.1% | #482 of 666 | #19 of 30 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -48.1% | #5 of 359 | #2 of 20 |
Ranked against other public elementary schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
344
-157 (-31%) vs 2020
-12% since 2010-11, when it was 393
Student : Teacher
13.5:1
was 16.2:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 344 | 25.5 | 13.5:1 | 31% (107) |
| 2023-24 | 449 | 31.6 | 14.2:1 | 38% (169) |
| 2022-23 | 453 | 34.2 | 13.3:1 | 40% (181) |
| 2020-21 | 501 | 31 | 16.2:1 | 30% (150) |
| 2017-18 | 663 | 38.9 | 17.0:1 | 18% (120) |
| 2015-16 | 606 | 33 | 18.4:1 | 20% (120) |
| 2010-11 | 393 | 23 | 17.1:1 | 27% (107) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Buford Garner Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 48% (663 to 344); teachers down 35% (38.9 to 25.5).
About Buford Garner Elementary
Located in North Liberty, Iowa, Buford Garner Elementary is a mid-sized elementary school. Its grade span covers pre-K through 5, with 344 students on the rolls.
Iowa City Comm School District counts 29 schools and 15,111 students, including Buford Garner Elementary.
More than half of enrollment at Buford Garner Elementary is White: 61%. Next come 13% Black, 12% multiracial, and 12% Hispanic. The county population is about 76% White. The diversity index for Buford Garner Elementary is 58%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
There are about 13.5 students for every full-time-equivalent teacher at Buford Garner Elementary, which has 25.5. The 13.7:1 average for elementary schools in Iowa is close to this figure. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility at Buford Garner Elementary is about 31%.
Buford Garner Elementary holds a C- allk12 Grade, placing it above 23% of Iowa public elementary schools.
Buford Garner Elementary's actual average proficiency rate across its state test results (68.8%) and its predicted rate (76.4%) put it outside the top and bottom 10% of Iowa schools.
Census data for Johnson County show median household income comes to about $74,935, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 55%, and about 7% of people live in poverty. There are 43 public schools in the county, enrolling about 20,019, Buford Garner Elementary among them.
Penn Elementary School sits about 0.4 miles from Buford Garner Elementary. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. Nearby schools with test data average 78.1% proficiency; Buford Garner Elementary posts 68.8%.
Buford Garner Elementary falls in the Suburb: Mid-size locale category, used for schools in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
Federal enrollment counts decreased from 501 (2020-21) to 344 (2024-25). Over the same period, the student-to-teacher ratio dropped to 13.5:1, from 16.2:1.
Parents, students, and staff can share information on special education services, counseling, and support programs here. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
Johnson County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
156,639
Census ACS
Median income
$74,935
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
55%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
43
20,019 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Iowa City Comm School District
- Iowa City High SchoolHigh · 1,666 students
- West Senior High SchoolHigh · 1,514 students
- Liberty High SchoolHigh · 1,286 students
- Southeast Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,269 students
- Northwest Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,113 students
- North Central Middle SchoolMiddle · 925 students
Other schools in North Liberty
- Liberty High SchoolHigh · 1,286 students
- North Central Middle SchoolMiddle · 925 students
- Penn Elementary SchoolElementary · 512 students
- Christine Grant ElementaryElementary · 426 students
- James Van Allen Elementary SchoolElementary · 376 students
- North Bend ElementaryElementary · 326 students
Nearby schools
- Penn Elementary School0.4 mi · 512
- Christine Grant Elementary1.0 mi · 426
- James Van Allen Elementary School1.1 mi · 376
- North Central Middle School1.3 mi · 925
- Liberty High School1.6 mi · 1,286
- North Bend Elementary1.8 mi · 326
Frequently asked questions
About Buford Garner ElementaryWhat is the total enrollment at Buford Garner Elementary?
Buford Garner Elementary enrolls approximately 344 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Buford Garner Elementary serve?
Buford Garner Elementary serves grades PK-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Buford Garner Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Buford Garner Elementary is approximately 13.5:1 (25 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at Buford Garner Elementary?
Student demographics at Buford Garner Elementary are roughly 61% White, 12% Hispanic, 13% Black, 1% Asian, 12% Two or more.
Who oversees Buford Garner Elementary?
Buford Garner Elementary is overseen by Iowa City Comm School District in Johnson County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.