English Language Arts
49.4%
State avg 73.6%
District avg 59.9%
County avg 70.8%
+13.5pp since 2023-24
District avg 59.9%
County avg 70.8%
+13.5pp since 2023-24
Test scores
See how it ranks: all Iowa schools by score · Des Moines County schools by score
ISASP, SY 2024-25
All grades, all students. % Proficient.Mathematics
48.4%
State avg 70.9%
District avg 47.8%
County avg 62.4%
+4.0pp since 2023-24
District avg 47.8%
County avg 62.4%
+4.0pp since 2023-24
Science
N/A
State avg 67.2%
District avg 45.8%
County avg 58.0%
District avg 45.8%
County avg 58.0%
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 49 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 48 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 14 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of IA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
44.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
61.7%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-17.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 45% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 62% 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 →
By grade, SY 2024-25
School score vs state average per tested grade.| Grade | English Language Arts | Mathematics | Science | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| School | State | n tested | School | State | n tested | School | State | n tested | |
| Grade 3 | 40.0% | 67.8% | 45 | 60.0% | 75.7% | 45 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Grade 4 | 58.3% | 75.9% | 48 | 37.5% | 74.2% | 48 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
2-year history
All grades, all students. James Wilson Grimes Iowa avgEnglish Language Arts
| Year | School | District | County | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SY 2024-25 | 49.4% | 59.9% | 70.8% | 73.6% |
| SY 2023-24 | 35.9% | 59.4% | 69.3% | 72.7% |
Mathematics
| Year | School | District | County | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SY 2024-25 | 48.4% | 47.8% | 62.4% | 70.9% |
| SY 2023-24 | 44.4% | 46.7% | 60.3% | 69.8% |
How to read these scores
What is ISASP?
ISASP is the statewide standardized test administered by Iowa public schools.
What does "% Proficient" mean?
It is the share of students at the school who performed at grade level or above on the test, summed across the top two of four performance levels. A higher number is better.
What does 49.4% mean for English Language Arts at James Wilson Grimes School?
It means about 49.4 percent of students tested at James Wilson Grimes School performed at grade level or above on the ISASP English Language Arts test in 2024-25. The statewide average for Iowa that year was 73.6%. The other students fell into the lower performance levels.
How is the state average calculated?
It is a weighted average, not a simple average of each school's number. We multiply each public school's score by how many of its students tested, add those together for all schools in Iowa, and divide by the total students tested that year. This way a big school with 1,500 students counts more than a small school with 50 students, which is the right way to ask "how did the typical student do this year?". District and county averages on this page use the same method, just scoped to that district or county.
Where does this data come from?
Iowa Department of Education, Iowa State Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP). School-level data by grade and subject from educate.iowa.gov. Headline metric is the cumulative "Proficient" rate (Proficient + Advanced, top 2 of 3 ISASP levels).
How often is it updated?
ISASP is administered once a year (spring). Results are released by the state in the summer or early fall. We refresh this page after each annual release.