1
What clubs or activities at Capitol View Elementary School are worth joining?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
533
Elementary
DISTRICT 347 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 190897000518
Capitol View Elementary School
320 E. 16th, Des Moines, IA 50316 · (515) 242-8402 · Polk County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL533 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
13.3:1
40 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.3:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
92%
492 students
DISTRICT 76% · STATE 41%
Community
5
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 | 36 | 7% |
| Kindergarten | 65 | 12% |
| Grade 1 | 85 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 100 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 86 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 82 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 79 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (65) is 18% smaller than its 5th grade class (79).
Student demographics
62%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 74% · 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
43.8%
IA avg 73.6% . +0.6pp since 2023
Math
42.9%
IA avg 70.9% . -3.7pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 44 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 43 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Iowa schools, those numbers are about 74 and 71. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2023, while math scores are down about 4 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 43.8% | 42.9% |
| 2023-24 | 43.2% | 46.6% |
% 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
41.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
45.8%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 42% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 46% 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 Capitol View Elementary School
Capitol View Elementary School's state test result (41.6% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capitol View Elementary School this school | 533 | 92.3% | 41.6% |
| Hunt Elementary School Sioux City | 451 | 92.9% | 52.3% |
| Carver Elementary Des Moines | 436 | 92.4% | 40.2% |
| Studebaker Elementary School Des Moines | 561 | 86.3% | 42.2% |
| Liberty Elementary School Sioux City | 659 | 84.8% | 49.0% |
| Morris Elementary School Des Moines | 519 | 87.7% | 47.3% |
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 Capitol View Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 41.6% | #545 of 564 | #69 of 78 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 42.9% | #549 of 564 ▼ 17 | #71 of 78 ▼ 6 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 43.8% | #539 of 564 ▼ 5 | #67 of 78 ▼ 5 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 533 | #84 of 705 | #27 of 89 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.3:1 | #268 of 561 | #38 of 86 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 62.3% | #123 of 561 | #40 of 86 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 92.3% | #7 of 666 | #5 of 89 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -10.3% | #223 of 359 | #41 of 64 |
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
533
+18 (+3%) vs 2020
+52% since 1990-91, when it was 350
Student : Teacher
13.3:1
was 10.7:1
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 | 533 | 39.9 | 13.3:1 | 92% (492) |
| 2023-24 | 545 | 44.1 | 12.4:1 | 85% (465) |
| 2022-23 | 505 | 43.7 | 11.6:1 | 94% (477) |
| 2020-21 | 515 | 48 | 10.7:1 | 95% (489) |
| 2017-18 | 594 | 50.7 | 11.7:1 | 94% (559) |
| 2015-16 | 604 | 51 | 11.8:1 | 93% (560) |
| 2010-11 | 572 | 48 | 11.9:1 | 78% (444) |
| 2000-01 | 603 | 65 | 9.3:1 | 76% (458) |
| 1990-91 | 350 | 23 | 15.2:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Capitol View Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 10% (594 to 533); teachers down 21% (50.7 to 39.9).
About Capitol View Elementary School
Capitol View Elementary School is a large elementary school in Des Moines, Iowa, one of the schools in Des Moines Independent Comm School District. The school runs pre-K through 5 and enrolls 533 students. By comparison, elementary schools in Iowa enroll about 325 students on average.
Des Moines Independent Comm School District includes 59 schools. Together they enroll 29,676 students.
Federal enrollment data show Capitol View Elementary School is 56% Hispanic. Next come 19% Black, 17% White, 6% multiracial, and 3% Asian. The county population is about 10% Hispanic. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 62, compared with 70 nationally.
Capitol View Elementary School has 39.9 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of about 13.3:1. The average for elementary schools in Iowa is about 13.7:1. Eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, often used to gauge student poverty, is 92%. The gap from the 49% average for public schools in Polk County is 43 points.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 45.8% for Capitol View Elementary School. The school posts 41.6%, 4.2 points below the prediction.
For Polk County, Census Bureau data show the median household earns about $83,576 a year, 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Public schools in Polk County number 137, with about 77,436 students.
East High School is the nearest public school to Capitol View Elementary School, about 0.5 miles away. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. The nearest schools with test data average 45.1%, higher than Capitol View Elementary School's 41.6%.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is City: Mid-size: inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
A 3% increase took enrollment from 515 in 2020-21 to 533 in 2024-25. Staffing shifted too: the ratio moved from 10.7:1 to 13.3:1.
People can post here about homework, tutoring, and testing dates and other school topics. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
Polk County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
503,175
Census ACS
Median income
$83,576
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
40%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
137
77,436 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Des Moines Independent Comm School District
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,364 students
- Roosevelt High SchoolHigh · 2,051 students
- East High SchoolHigh · 1,952 students
- North High SchoolHigh · 1,428 students
- Hoover High SchoolHigh · 898 students
- Weeks Middle SchoolMiddle · 688 students
Other schools in Des Moines
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,364 students
- Roosevelt High SchoolHigh · 2,051 students
- East High SchoolHigh · 1,952 students
- North High SchoolHigh · 1,428 students
- Hoover High SchoolHigh · 898 students
- Weeks Middle SchoolMiddle · 688 students
Nearby schools
- East High School0.5 mi · 1,952
- Hiatt Middle School0.7 mi · 488
- Carver Elementary1.0 mi · 436
- McKinley Elementary School1.5 mi · 275
- Phillips Elementary1.5 mi · 263
- Willard Elementary School1.8 mi · 247
Frequently asked questions
About Capitol View Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Capitol View Elementary School?
Capitol View Elementary School enrolls approximately 533 students in grades PK-05.
Is Capitol View Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Capitol View Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades PK-05.
How many students per teacher at Capitol View Elementary School?
Approximately 13.3:1 students per teacher at Capitol View Elementary School.
How diverse is Capitol View Elementary School?
Capitol View Elementary School reports a student body of 17% White, 56% Hispanic, 19% Black, 3% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Who oversees Capitol View Elementary School?
Capitol View Elementary School is overseen by Des Moines Independent Comm School District in Polk County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.