Enrollment
312
Elementary
DISTRICT 347 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 190897000548
Jefferson Elementary School
2425 Watrous Ave, Des Moines, IA 50321 · (515) 242-8416 · Polk County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL312 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
14.3:1
22 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.3:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
41%
129 students
DISTRICT 76% · STATE 41%
Community
0
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 | 27 | 9% |
| Kindergarten | 35 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 46 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 49 | 16% |
| Grade 3 | 53 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 51 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 51 | 16% |
This year's kindergarten class (35) is 31% smaller than its 5th grade class (51).
Student demographics
54%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 74% · 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
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
74.8%
IA avg 73.6% . +4.4pp since 2023
Math
78.9%
IA avg 70.9% . +6.5pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 75 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 79 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 4 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 7 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 74.8% | 78.9% |
| 2023-24 | 70.4% | 72.4% |
% 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
70.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
71.3%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-0.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 71% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 71% 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 Jefferson Elementary School
Jefferson Elementary School's state test result (70.7% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson Elementary School this school | 312 | 41.3% | 70.7% |
| Sergeant Bluff-Luton Primary School Sergeant Bluff | 349 | 39.8% | N/A |
| Linn Grove Elementary School Marion | 385 | 44.4% | 70.5% |
| Meeker Elementary School Ames | 361 | 42.1% | 75.9% |
| Hoover Elementary School Dubuque | 292 | 44.5% | 63.9% |
| Hubbell Elementary Des Moines | 362 | 42.8% | 67.1% |
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 Jefferson Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 70.7% | #317 of 564 | #35 of 78 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 78.9% | #245 of 564 ▲ 97 | #27 of 78 ▲ 6 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 74.8% | #247 of 564 ▲ 29 | #34 of 78 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 312 | #351 of 705 | #65 of 89 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.3:1 | #371 of 561 | #48 of 86 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 53.9% | #186 of 561 | #57 of 86 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 41.3% | #339 of 666 | #54 of 89 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -20.4% | #93 of 359 | #19 of 64 |
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
312
-59 (-16%) vs 2020
-29% since 1990-91, when it was 437
Student : Teacher
14.3:1
was 16.1:1
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 | 312 | 21.9 | 14.3:1 | 41% (129) |
| 2023-24 | 306 | 21.9 | 14.0:1 | 40% (123) |
| 2022-23 | 338 | 22.7 | 14.9:1 | 50% (168) |
| 2020-21 | 371 | 23 | 16.1:1 | 49% (183) |
| 2017-18 | 392 | 23.1 | 17.0:1 | 41% (160) |
| 2015-16 | 439 | 25 | 17.6:1 | 42% (185) |
| 2010-11 | 426 | 22 | 19.4:1 | 18% (76) |
| 2000-01 | 431 | 23 | 18.7:1 | 3% (14) |
| 1990-91 | 437 | 20 | 21.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Jefferson Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 20% (392 to 312); teachers down 5% (23.1 to 21.9).
About Jefferson Elementary School
Federal records list Jefferson Elementary School as an elementary school in Des Moines, Iowa. It offers pre-K through 5 and has 312 students enrolled.
Des Moines Independent Comm School District is the local district for Jefferson Elementary School. It runs 59 schools with 29,676 students.
At Jefferson Elementary School, 65% of students are White. It is also 12% Hispanic, 11% Black, 8% multiracial, and 3% Asian. For comparison, the population of Polk County is roughly 76% White. On the diversity index, which measures the chance that two random students are from different groups, Jefferson Elementary School scores 54%.
With 21.9 full-time-equivalent teachers, the student-to-teacher ratio is about 14.3:1. The average for elementary schools in Iowa is about 13.7:1. Student poverty is often measured by lunch eligibility; at Jefferson Elementary School, 41% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. For comparison, public schools in Polk County average 49%.
Jefferson Elementary School's average proficiency rate across its state test results of 70.7% is within a point of the 71.3% the model predicts from its lunch-eligibility share.
In Polk County, the median household earns about $83,576 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 40%, and about 7% of people live in poverty. Polk County has 137 public schools with about 77,436 students, including Jefferson Elementary School.
Brody Middle School is the nearest public school to Jefferson Elementary School, about 0.5 miles away. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. Nearby schools with test data average 45.9% proficiency; Jefferson Elementary School posts 70.7%.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as City: Mid-size, meaning it is inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
From 371 students in 2020-21, enrollment fell to 312 by 2024-25. Students per teacher dropped from 16.1 in 2020-21 to 14.3 in 2024-25.
People can post here about homework, tutoring, and testing dates and other school topics. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to post.
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 Des Moines Independent Comm School District
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,364 students
- Roosevelt High SchoolHigh · 2,051 students
- East High SchoolHigh · 1,952 students
- North High SchoolHigh · 1,428 students
- Hoover High SchoolHigh · 898 students
- Weeks Middle SchoolMiddle · 688 students
Other schools in Des Moines
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,364 students
- Roosevelt High SchoolHigh · 2,051 students
- East High SchoolHigh · 1,952 students
- North High SchoolHigh · 1,428 students
- Hoover High SchoolHigh · 898 students
- Weeks Middle SchoolMiddle · 688 students
Other Jefferson Elementary schools
143 other US public schools in 31 states are named Jefferson Elementary. Jefferson Elementary School is the 99th largest of the 144.
- Jefferson Elementary SchoolMuscatine, IA · 441 students
- Jefferson Elementary SchoolDavenport, IA · 384 students
- Jefferson Elementary SchoolClinton, IA · 376 students
- Jefferson Elementary SchoolMason City, IA · 292 students
- Jefferson Elementary SchoolJefferson, GA · 1,011 students
Nearby schools
- Brody Middle School0.5 mi · 641
- Wright Elementary School1.1 mi · 265
- Park Ave Elementary School1.4 mi · 380
- Lincoln High School1.5 mi · 2,364
- Morris Elementary School1.8 mi · 519
- South Union Elementary School1.9 mi · 422
Frequently asked questions
About Jefferson Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Jefferson Elementary School?
Jefferson Elementary School enrolls approximately 312 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Jefferson Elementary School serve?
Jefferson Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many teachers does Jefferson Elementary School have?
Jefferson Elementary School employs 22 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 14.3:1.
What is the student diversity at Jefferson Elementary School?
Student demographics at Jefferson Elementary School are roughly 65% White, 12% Hispanic, 11% Black, 3% Asian, 8% Two or more.
Is Jefferson Elementary School public or private?
Jefferson Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Des Moines Independent Comm School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.