1
How has Jefferson Intermediate changed in the last five years, for better or worse?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
494
Middle
DISTRICT 435 · STATE 400
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PELLA COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 192247000116
Jefferson Intermediate
801 E 13th St, Pella, IA 50219 · (641) 628-8267 · Marion County
GRADES 04–06MIDDLE32-TOWNREGULAR SCHOOL494 STUDENTS
B-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 53% of Iowa public middle schools
- B+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C-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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
14.2:1
35 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.6:1 · STATE 15.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
17%
82 students
DISTRICT 16% · STATE 41%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 4 | 167 | 34% |
| Grade 5 | 164 | 33% |
| Grade 6 | 163 | 33% |
Student demographics
22%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 24% · 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
Based on grade levels within Pella Comm School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
84.4%
IA avg 73.6% . +2.0pp since 2023
Math
82.8%
IA avg 70.9% . +1.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 84 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 83 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 2 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 1 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 84.4% | 82.8% |
| 2023-24 | 82.4% | 81.8% |
% 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
81.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
83.6%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-2.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 81% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 84% 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 Intermediate
Jefferson Intermediate's state test result (81.2% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson Intermediate this school | 494 | 16.6% | 81.2% |
| Mount Vernon Middle School Mount Vernon | 425 | 15.8% | 90.1% |
| Bondurant - Farrar Intermediate School Bondurant | 445 | 16.4% | 72.4% |
| Pella Middle School Pella | 375 | 15.7% | 88.8% |
| DC-G Oak View Grimes | 537 | 20.5% | 85.8% |
| Ballard Middle School Huxley | 418 | 17.7% | 83.9% |
Matched among Iowa middle 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 Intermediate ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa |
|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 81.2% | #61 of 224 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 82.8% | #53 of 224 ▼ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 84.4% | #53 of 224 ▲ 30 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 494 | #70 of 246 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.2:1 | #88 of 180 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 22.1% | #130 of 180 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 16.6% | #222 of 237 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -11.5% | #57 of 103 |
Ranked against other public middle 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
494
-28 (-5%) vs 2020
+2% since 2000-01, when it was 483
Student : Teacher
14.2:1
was 14.5:1
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 | 494 | 34.8 | 14.2:1 | 17% (82) |
| 2023-24 | 502 | 33.5 | 15.0:1 | 19% (97) |
| 2022-23 | 526 | 33.6 | 15.7:1 | 19% (99) |
| 2020-21 | 522 | 36 | 14.5:1 | 18% (95) |
| 2017-18 | 558 | 35.2 | 15.9:1 | 17% (95) |
| 2015-16 | 500 | 36 | 13.9:1 | 18% (88) |
| 2010-11 | 506 | 29 | 17.4:1 | 21% (106) |
| 2000-01 | 483 | 31 | 15.6:1 | 13% (63) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Jefferson Intermediate.
Since 2017-18: students down 11% (558 to 494); teachers down 1% (35.2 to 34.8).
About Jefferson Intermediate
Jefferson Intermediate is a medium-sized middle-grades school in Pella, Iowa. Classes run from 4 through 6, and the school has 494 students. The average for middle schools in Iowa is about 400 students, so this school is 24% bigger than average.
Jefferson Intermediate is part of a district of 6 schools: Pella Comm School District, with 2,462 students.
White students are the large majority at Jefferson Intermediate, with 88% of enrollment. The next largest groups are 4% Hispanic, 3% multiracial, 2% Asian, and 2% Pacific Islander. The chance that two students picked at random at Jefferson Intermediate belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 22%.
The school reports 34.8 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to about 14.2 students per teacher. The 15.2:1 average for middle schools in Iowa is higher than this school's figure. The free or reduced-price lunch share, often used to gauge student poverty, is 17%. Among public schools in Marion County, the average eligibility rate is 29%.
The allk12 Grade for Jefferson Intermediate is B-. Compared with Iowa public middle schools, the school scored higher than 53% on a mix of test scores, poverty-adjusted results, and recent trend.
On the allk12 BeatsExpectations measure, Jefferson Intermediate is 2.5 points below the average proficiency rate on state tests predicted for its free or reduced-price lunch share: 81.2% actual, 83.6% predicted. That is outside both the top and bottom 10% in Iowa.
Recent Census Bureau figures for Marion County show that median household income is about $78,680, 32% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 6% of people live in poverty. Federal data list 17 public schools in Marion County, with a combined enrollment of about 5,571.
Pella Middle School is the nearest neighboring public school, less than a tenth of a mile away. Counting only straight-line distance, 5 other public schools are within five miles. In a group of 8 nearby schools with scores, Jefferson Intermediate ranks 6th on average proficiency.
Federal records code the school's setting as Town: Distant.
A comparison of 2020-21 and 2024-25 shows enrollment down 5%, from 522 to 494.
To ask about school safety, transportation, and start times, start a discussion on this page. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Marion County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
33,642
Census ACS
Median income
$78,680
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
32%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
17
5,571 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Pella Comm School District
- Pella High SchoolHigh · 801 students
- Madison Elementary SchoolElementary · 401 students
- Pella Middle SchoolMiddle · 375 students
- Lincoln Elementary SchoolElementary · 254 students
- Viersen Early Learning CenterElementary · 137 students
Other schools in Pella
- Pella High SchoolHigh · 801 students
- Madison Elementary SchoolElementary · 401 students
- Pella Middle SchoolMiddle · 375 students
- Lincoln Elementary SchoolElementary · 254 students
- Viersen Early Learning CenterElementary · 137 students
Other Jefferson Intermediate schools
2 other US public schools in 3 states are named Jefferson Intermediate. Jefferson Intermediate is the 2nd largest of the 3.
- JEFFERSON INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLST CHARLES, MO · 706 students
- JEFFERSON INTERMEDIATE SCHOOLFAIRBURY, NE · 259 students
Nearby schools
- Pella Middle School0.1 mi · 375
- Pella High School0.4 mi · 801
- Madison Elementary School0.5 mi · 401
- Viersen Early Learning Center0.6 mi · 137
- Lincoln Elementary School0.9 mi · 254
- Northstar Elementary School11.7 mi · 348
Frequently asked questions
About Jefferson IntermediateHow many students attend Jefferson Intermediate?
Jefferson Intermediate enrolls approximately 494 students in grades 04-06.
What grades does Jefferson Intermediate serve?
Jefferson Intermediate serves grades 04-06.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Jefferson Intermediate?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Jefferson Intermediate is approximately 14.2:1 (35 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Jefferson Intermediate?
At Jefferson Intermediate, the student body is approximately 88% White, 4% Hispanic, 1% Black, 2% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Is Jefferson Intermediate public or private?
Jefferson Intermediate is a public K-12 school, overseen by Pella Comm School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.