Ernest Horn Elementary School

Ernest Horn Elementary School is a primary school of medium-sized scale in Iowa City, Iowa, part of Iowa City Comm School District, hosting 453 students in grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 39% above the typical public school in Iowa, which averages around 325 students.

Across the 29 schools in Iowa City Comm School District (15,111 students total), Ernest Horn Elementary School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

On demographics, Ernest Horn Elementary School reports that the most-represented group is Black (43%), with the rest of the student body spread across multiple groups. The remainder reads as 34% White, 10% Asian, 6% multiracial, 6% Hispanic. By comparison, Johnson County as a whole is about 8% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

On the income-and-resources front, The school currently runs with 33 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 13.6:1. That tracks the state average closely. Around 58% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Johnson County (around 37%), the school's rate is noticeably above typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Ernest Horn Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 62.7%; this one delivers 64.8%.

Zooming out to the county, community-level numbers for Johnson County indicate median household earnings sit near $74,935, 55% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Johnson County runs 43 public schools (combined enrollment of about 20,019 students), of which Ernest Horn Elementary School is one.

The closest other public school is West Senior High School, roughly 1.0 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Ernest Horn Elementary School. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Ernest Horn Elementary School ranks 6th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 70.0%.

The school occupies an outer-ring site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Ernest Horn Elementary School has increased 10%, going from 412 students in 2018 to 453 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share grew from 26% to 43%.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.