1
What advice would you give to incoming students at Four Mile Elementary?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
495
Elementary
DISTRICT 441 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SOUTHEAST POLK COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 192682001569
Four Mile Elementary
670 SE 68th St, Pleasant Hill, IA 50327 · (515) 265-1972 · Polk County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY41-RURALREGULAR SCHOOL495 STUDENTS
B+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 70% of Iowa public elementary schools
- B+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- B+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
13.9:1
36 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.7:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
38%
187 students
DISTRICT 40% · 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 | 47 | 9% |
| Kindergarten | 72 | 15% |
| Grade 1 | 70 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 70 | 14% |
| Grade 3 | 78 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 83 | 17% |
| Grade 5 | 75 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (72) is about the same size as its 5th grade class (75).
Student demographics
49%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 49% · 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
Students here typically continue to
Four Mile Elementary→Southeast Polk Middle School→Southeast Polk Junior High→Southeast Polk High School
Based on grade levels within Southeast Polk Comm School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
78.3%
IA avg 73.6% . +2.8pp since 2023
Math
84.0%
IA avg 70.9% . -3.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 78 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 84 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 3 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 78.3% | 84.0% |
| 2023-24 | 75.5% | 87.0% |
% 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
77.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
73.0%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+4.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 77% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 73% 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 Four Mile Elementary
Four Mile Elementary's state test result (77.3% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Four Mile Elementary this school | 495 | 37.8% | 77.3% |
| Heritage Elementary Ankeny | 604 | 33.9% | 74.9% |
| Fairmeadows Elementary School West Des Moines | 542 | 43.5% | 72.3% |
| Sawyer Elementary School Ames | 371 | 36.1% | 71.1% |
| West Burlington Elem School West Burlington | 479 | 40.1% | 67.3% |
| Jordan Creek Elementary School West Des Moines | 652 | 33.4% | 82.2% |
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 Four Mile Elementary ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 77.3% | #184 of 564 | #23 of 78 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 84.0% | #145 of 564 ▼ 69 | #16 of 78 ▼ 8 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 78.3% | #178 of 564 ▲ 12 | #22 of 78 ▲ 3 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 495 | #105 of 705 | #35 of 89 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.9:1 | #334 of 561 | #43 of 86 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 48.9% | #221 of 561 | #64 of 86 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 37.8% | #393 of 666 | #57 of 89 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +15.1% | #60 of 168 | #3 of 16 |
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
495
+45 (+10%) vs 2020
+64% since 1990-91, when it was 302
Student : Teacher
13.9:1
was 15.0:1
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 | 495 | 35.7 | 13.9:1 | 38% (187) |
| 2023-24 | 489 | 34.7 | 14.1:1 | 43% (208) |
| 2022-23 | 483 | 31 | 15.6:1 | 36% (172) |
| 2020-21 | 450 | 30 | 15.0:1 | 27% (121) |
| 2017-18 | 430 | 28 | 15.4:1 | 29% (125) |
| 2015-16 | 441 | 29 | 15.2:1 | 26% (115) |
| 2010-11 | 491 | 29 | 16.9:1 | 22% (110) |
| 2000-01 | 423 | 23 | 18.4:1 | 13% (53) |
| 1990-91 | 302 | 14 | 21.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Four Mile Elementary.
Since 2017-18: students up 15% (430 to 495); teachers up 28% (28 to 35.7).
About Four Mile Elementary
Four Mile Elementary is a public high-enrollment elementary school in Pleasant Hill, Iowa. Its enrollment is 495 students, spread over pre-K through 5. That compares with an average of about 325 students for elementary schools in Iowa.
The 10 schools of Southeast Polk Comm School District, including Four Mile Elementary, enroll 6,359 students.
The share of White students at Four Mile Elementary is 70%, a majority. After that, the student body is 13% Hispanic, 5% Asian, 5% multiracial, and 5% Black. A diversity index of 49% means there is a 49% chance two randomly chosen students at Four Mile Elementary are from different groups.
There are about 13.9 students for every full-time-equivalent teacher at Four Mile Elementary, which has 35.7. The ratio is within a point of the 13.7:1 average for elementary schools in Iowa. Eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch stands at 38%. The rate at public schools in Polk County averages 49%, higher than here.
Among Iowa public elementary schools, Four Mile Elementary outscored 70%, which works out to a B+ on the allk12 Grade.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Four Mile Elementary falls in the middle 80% of Iowa schools: 77.3% actual against 73.0% predicted.
In the surrounding county, Polk County, median household income comes to about $83,576, about 40% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. The county has 137 public schools and about 77,436 students.
The closest school to Four Mile Elementary is Southeast Polk High School, located about 1.9 miles away. Four Mile Elementary is one of several public schools in the area, with at least 8 others within five miles. Four Mile Elementary's average proficiency of 77.3% compares with 56.4% for its nearest scored neighbors.
NCES describes the area around Four Mile Elementary as Rural: Fringe, meaning in rural territory close to an urban area.
Since 2020-21, enrollment has grown 10%, from 450 to 495. Over the same period, the student-to-teacher ratio dropped to 13.9:1, from 15.0:1.
This community page is for conversations about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures. You can also rate the school on this page.
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 Southeast Polk Comm School District
- Southeast Polk High SchoolHigh · 1,722 students
- Southeast Polk Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,112 students
- Clay ElementaryElementary · 700 students
- Willowbrook ElementaryElementary · 523 students
- Delaware ElementaryElementary · 440 students
- Altoona ElementaryElementary · 429 students
Other schools in Pleasant Hill
- Southeast Polk High SchoolHigh · 1,722 students
- Southeast Polk Junior HighHigh
Nearby schools
- Southeast Polk High School1.9 mi · 1,722
- Pleasant Hill Elementary School2.4 mi · 241
- Clay Elementary3.0 mi · 700
- Hoyt Middle School4.1 mi · 455
- McKee Elementary School4.1 mi · 235
- Brubaker Elementary School4.2 mi · 622
Frequently asked questions
About Four Mile ElementaryWhat is the total enrollment at Four Mile Elementary?
Four Mile Elementary enrolls approximately 495 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Four Mile Elementary serve?
Four Mile Elementary serves grades PK-05.
How many students per teacher at Four Mile Elementary?
Approximately 13.9:1 students per teacher at Four Mile Elementary.
How diverse is Four Mile Elementary?
Four Mile Elementary reports a student body of 70% White, 13% Hispanic, 5% Black, 5% Asian, 5% Two or more.
Who oversees Four Mile Elementary?
Four Mile Elementary is overseen by Southeast Polk Comm School District in Polk County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.