1
How has Fort Dodge High School changed in the last five years, for better or worse?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,020
High
DISTRICT 484 · STATE 468
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·FORT DODGE COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 191182000724
Fort Dodge High School
819 N 25th St, Fort Dodge, IA 50501 · (515) 955-1770 · Webster County
GRADES 09–12HIGH33-TOWNTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL1,020 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 5% of Iowa public high schools
- DTest 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 high schools
Student : Teacher
17.2:1
59 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.2:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
48%
493 students
DISTRICT 51% · STATE 41%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 9 | 256 | 25% |
| Grade 10 | 274 | 27% |
| Grade 11 | 251 | 25% |
| Grade 12 | 239 | 23% |
Student demographics
51%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 53% · 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
School pathway
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Fort Dodge Comm School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
65.2%
IA avg 73.6% . +2.5pp since 2023
Math
49.9%
IA avg 70.9% . +2.7pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 65 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 50 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 up about 3 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 65.2% | 49.9% |
| 2023-24 | 62.7% | 47.2% |
% Proficient, all students and all tested grades.
Source: ISASP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of IA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
54.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
67.8%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-13.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 54% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 68% typical for Iowa schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Fort Dodge High School
Fort Dodge High School's state test result (54.2% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Dodge High School this school | 1,020 | 48.3% | 54.2% |
| Clinton High School Clinton | 981 | 46.3% | 55.6% |
| Abraham Lincoln High School Council Bluffs | 1,333 | 46.1% | 52.6% |
| Thomas Jefferson High School Council Bluffs | 1,146 | 54.8% | 48.3% |
| Mason City High School Mason City | 891 | 41.2% | 58.6% |
| East High School Sioux City | 1,495 | 51.6% | 64.1% |
Matched among Iowa high 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 Fort Dodge High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa |
|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 54.2% | #293 of 313 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 49.9% | #295 of 314 ▲ 2 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 65.2% | #278 of 314 ▲ 12 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,020 | #44 of 340 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.2:1 | #227 of 259 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 51.4% | #42 of 260 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 48.3% | #62 of 320 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -10.9% | #52 of 125 |
Ranked against other public high 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
1,020
-79 (-7%) vs 2020
-19% since 1990-91, when it was 1,256
Student : Teacher
17.2:1
was 15.9:1
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 | 1,020 | 59.3 | 17.2:1 | 48% (493) |
| 2023-24 | 1,057 | 57.2 | 18.5:1 | 54% (569) |
| 2022-23 | 1,072 | 63.8 | 16.8:1 | 54% (583) |
| 2020-21 | 1,099 | 69 | 15.9:1 | 49% (544) |
| 2017-18 | 1,145 | 72.7 | 15.8:1 | 53% (608) |
| 2015-16 | 1,145 | 77 | 14.9:1 | 52% (594) |
| 2010-11 | 1,182 | 84 | 14.1:1 | 45% (535) |
| 2000-01 | 1,236 | 102 | 12.1:1 | 36% (442) |
| 1990-91 | 1,256 | 93 | 13.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Fort Dodge High School.
Since 2017-18: students down 11% (1,145 to 1,020); teachers down 18% (72.7 to 59.3).
About Fort Dodge High School
The public high school Fort Dodge High School is located in Fort Dodge, Iowa. A federal count lists 1,020 students at the school, in grades 9 through 12. Average enrollment for high schools in Iowa is about 468, so this school runs 118% larger than that.
The district for Fort Dodge High School is Fort Dodge Comm School District, with 7 schools and 3,385 students.
White students make up a majority at Fort Dodge High School, at 67%. Other students are 18% Hispanic, 7% multiracial, and 6% Black. That is lower than the 86% White share among all Webster County residents. Pick two students at random and there is a 51% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Teacher staffing is 59.3 full-time equivalents, or about 17.2 students per teacher. For comparison, high schools in Iowa average 17.3:1. Eligibility for subsidized school meals is 48%. That tracks the 50% average for public schools in Webster County.
Fort Dodge High School is graded D by allk12, scoring above 5% of Iowa public high schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Fort Dodge High School is in the bottom 10% of Iowa schools: 54.2% actual against 67.8% predicted.
Across Webster County, the median household income is $68,975, roughly 22% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Webster County is home to 12 public schools and about 4,678 public school students.
Cooper Elementary School is the closest public school, about 0.4 miles away in a straight line. In all, 6 other public schools sit within five miles of Fort Dodge High School. Fort Dodge High School places 4th of 7 on proficiency among the closest schools that report scores.
NCES lists the school's locale as Town: Remote. That means it sits in a town far from an urbanized area.
The school enrolled 1,020 students in 2024-25, 79 fewer than the 1,099 it had in 2020-21. The student-to-teacher ratio went up from 15.9:1 to 17.2:1.
The discussion area below is open to posts about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Webster County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
36,886
Census ACS
Median income
$68,975
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
22%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
12
4,678 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Fort Dodge Comm School District
- Fort Dodge Middle SchoolMiddle · 765 students
- Duncombe Elementary SchoolElementary · 438 students
- Early Childhood CenterElementary · 376 students
- Butler Elementary SchoolElementary · 328 students
- Cooper Elementary SchoolElementary · 231 students
- Feelhaver Elementary SchoolElementary · 227 students
Other schools in Fort Dodge
- Fort Dodge Middle SchoolMiddle · 765 students
- Duncombe Elementary SchoolElementary · 438 students
- Early Childhood CenterElementary · 376 students
- Butler Elementary SchoolElementary · 328 students
- Cooper Elementary SchoolElementary · 231 students
- Feelhaver Elementary SchoolElementary · 227 students
Nearby schools
- Cooper Elementary School0.4 mi · 231
- Fort Dodge Middle School0.5 mi · 765
- Duncombe Elementary School0.6 mi · 438
- Early Childhood Center0.9 mi · 376
- Feelhaver Elementary School1.3 mi · 227
- Butler Elementary School1.4 mi · 328
Frequently asked questions
About Fort Dodge High SchoolHow many students attend Fort Dodge High School?
Fort Dodge High School enrolls approximately 1,020 students in grades 09-12.
Is Fort Dodge High School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Fort Dodge High School is a high school covering grades 09-12.
How many teachers does Fort Dodge High School have?
Fort Dodge High School employs 59 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.2:1.
What is the student diversity at Fort Dodge High School?
Student demographics at Fort Dodge High School are roughly 67% White, 18% Hispanic, 6% Black, 1% Asian, 7% Two or more.
Who oversees Fort Dodge High School?
Fort Dodge High School is overseen by Fort Dodge Comm School District in Webster County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.