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Which teacher or staff member at Carver Elementary deserves more recognition?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
436
Elementary
DISTRICT 347 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 190897001596
Carver Elementary
705 E University Ave, Des Moines, IA 50316 · (515) 242-8418 · Polk County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL436 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 6% of Iowa public elementary schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C-Beats 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
14.2:1
31 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.3:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
92%
403 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 | 40 | 9% |
| Kindergarten | 72 | 17% |
| Grade 1 | 56 | 13% |
| Grade 2 | 71 | 16% |
| Grade 3 | 64 | 15% |
| Grade 4 | 67 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 66 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (72) is 9% larger than its 5th grade class (66).
Student demographics
59%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
39.2%
IA avg 73.6% . +3.4pp since 2023
Math
46.6%
IA avg 70.9% . -1.7pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 39 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 47 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Iowa schools, those numbers are about 74 and 71. Reading and writing scores are up about 3 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 2 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 39.2% | 46.6% |
| 2023-24 | 35.8% | 48.3% |
% 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
40.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
45.7%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-5.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 40% 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 Carver Elementary
Carver Elementary's state test result (40.2% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carver Elementary this school | 436 | 92.4% | 40.2% |
| Capitol View Elementary School Des Moines | 533 | 92.3% | 41.6% |
| Hunt Elementary School Sioux City | 451 | 92.9% | 52.3% |
| Studebaker Elementary School Des Moines | 561 | 86.3% | 42.2% |
| Howe Elementary Des Moines | 297 | 90.9% | 42.9% |
| Liberty Elementary School Sioux City | 659 | 84.8% | 49.0% |
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 Carver Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 40.2% | #549 of 564 | #71 of 78 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 46.6% | #538 of 564 ▼ 13 | #67 of 78 ▼ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 39.2% | #555 of 564 no change | #74 of 78 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 436 | #171 of 705 | #44 of 89 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.2:1 | #363 of 561 | #47 of 86 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 58.5% | #150 of 561 | #50 of 86 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 92.4% | #6 of 666 | #4 of 89 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -20.6% | #90 of 359 | #18 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
436
-16 (-4%) vs 2020
-35% since 2010-11, when it was 671
Student : Teacher
14.2:1
was 10.8:1
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 | 436 | 30.8 | 14.2:1 | 92% (403) |
| 2023-24 | 419 | 35.8 | 11.7:1 | 87% (366) |
| 2022-23 | 423 | 35.2 | 12.0:1 | 95% (401) |
| 2020-21 | 452 | 42 | 10.8:1 | 95% (429) |
| 2017-18 | 549 | 44.9 | 12.2:1 | 96% (525) |
| 2015-16 | 555 | 47 | 11.8:1 | 92% (511) |
| 2010-11 | 671 | 50 | 13.4:1 | 87% (586) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Carver Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students down 21% (549 to 436); teachers down 31% (44.9 to 30.8).
About Carver Elementary
Carver Elementary is an elementary school in Des Moines, Iowa, reachable at (515) 242-8418. The school enrolls 436 students, from pre-K through 5. An average school in this group (elementary schools in Iowa) has about 325 students.
Des Moines Independent Comm School District includes 59 schools. Together they enroll 29,676 students.
By race and ethnicity, Carver Elementary is 60% Hispanic. The rest of enrollment is 22% Black, 7% White, 6% multiracial, and 4% Asian. Census estimates put the Hispanic share of Polk County's population at about 10%. The chance that two students picked at random at Carver Elementary belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 59%.
Carver Elementary employs 30.8 full-time-equivalent teachers. That gives a ratio of about 14.2:1. Elementary schools in Iowa have a similar average ratio of 13.7:1. Carver Elementary's free or reduced-price lunch eligibility rate is 92%. That is 43 points above the 49% average for public schools in Polk County.
Measured against Iowa public elementary schools, Carver Elementary receives a D. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
Carver Elementary's average proficiency rate on state tests of 40.2% is 5.5 points below the 45.7% the model predicts from its lunch-eligibility share.
Recent Census Bureau figures for Polk County show that median household income is about $83,576, about 40% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. Carver Elementary is one of 137 public schools in Polk County, which together enroll about 77,436 students.
The nearest public school is East High School, at about 0.6 miles. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. On state test proficiency, Carver Elementary ranks 4th in a group of 8 nearby schools.
The school's locale code, City: Mid-size, means it is inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
The student count in 2024-25 was 436, 4% below the 452 of 2020-21. Over the same period, the student-to-teacher ratio rose to 14.2:1, from 10.8:1.
Discussion on this page can cover sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
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
Other Carver Elementary schools
25 other US public schools in 13 states are named Carver Elementary. Carver Elementary is the 15th largest of the 26.
- Carver Elementary SchoolDubuque, IA · 499 students
- Carver ElementaryMAPLEWOOD, MN · 898 students
- Carver Elementary SchoolCarver, MA · 788 students
- Carver Elementary SchoolCARVER, MN · 782 students
- Carver ElementarySan Marino, CA · 777 students
Nearby schools
- East High School0.6 mi · 1,952
- Hiatt Middle School0.7 mi · 488
- Moulton Elementary School1.0 mi · 465
- Capitol View Elementary School1.0 mi · 533
- Walnut Street School1.3 mi · 257
- North High School1.4 mi · 1,428
Frequently asked questions
About Carver ElementaryHow many students attend Carver Elementary?
Carver Elementary enrolls approximately 436 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Carver Elementary serve?
Carver Elementary serves grades PK-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Carver Elementary?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Carver Elementary is approximately 14.2:1 (31 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Carver Elementary?
At Carver Elementary, the student body is approximately 7% White, 60% Hispanic, 22% Black, 4% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Is Carver Elementary public or private?
Carver Elementary is a public K-12 school, overseen by Des Moines Independent Comm School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.