Crocker Elementary School

Set in Ankeny, Iowa, Crocker Elementary School is a heavily attended primary school, operated by Ankeny Comm School District. It hosts 489 students across grades K through 5. That puts it 50% bigger than the typical public school in Iowa, which averages around 325 students.

Across the 18 schools in Ankeny Comm School District (12,746 students total), Crocker Elementary School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, Crocker Elementary School logs that White students make up the majority at 78%. Other groups include 9% multiracial, 7% Hispanic, 3% Asian, 3% Black. That composition is broadly in line with Polk County as a whole.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 34 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.4:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. About 21% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. That share is south of Polk County's rate of about 49%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Crocker Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 81.2%; this one delivers 80.1%.

In the area at large, census data for Polk County shows median household income runs about $83,576, about 40% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Polk County's 137 public schools (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students), Crocker Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: Prairie Trail Elementary, around 0.9 miles off. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Crocker Elementary School comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, ahead of the nearby-schools average of 78.1%.

The campus sits in a bedroom-community setting.

Five-year trend. Crocker Elementary School's enrollment has shrank 26% since 2018, when it stood at 662 (now 489). The White share of enrollment fell from 85% to 78% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio pulled in from 19.4:1 in 2018 to 14.4:1 today.

On the community side, members of the Crocker Elementary School community share and discuss fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.