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Which teacher or staff member at Merrill Middle School deserves more recognition?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
657
Middle
DISTRICT 593 · STATE 400
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 190897000561
Merrill Middle School
5301 Grand Ave, Des Moines, IA 50312 · (515) 242-8448 · Polk County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL657 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 39% of Iowa public middle schools
- C+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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
16.8:1
39 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.7:1 · STATE 15.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
44%
287 students
DISTRICT 76% · 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 6 | 224 | 34% |
| Grade 7 | 238 | 36% |
| Grade 8 | 195 | 30% |
Student demographics
60%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
75.8%
IA avg 73.6% . +1.0pp since 2023
Math
74.2%
IA avg 70.9% . +5.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 76 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 74 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 1 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 5 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 75.8% | 74.2% |
| 2023-24 | 74.8% | 69.0% |
% 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
72.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
70.1%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+2.1pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 72% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 70% 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 Merrill Middle School
Merrill Middle School's state test result (72.2% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merrill Middle School this school | 657 | 43.7% | 72.2% |
| Stilwell Junior High School West Des Moines | 645 | 47.0% | 73.2% |
| Taft Middle School Cedar Rapids | 593 | 46.5% | 71.0% |
| Prairie Point Cedar Rapids | 868 | 37.6% | 69.9% |
| Harding Middle School Cedar Rapids | 710 | 43.8% | 75.8% |
| Southeast Polk Middle School Altoona | 1,112 | 41.0% | 79.0% |
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 Merrill Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 72.2% | #146 of 224 | #11 of 21 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 74.2% | #123 of 224 ▲ 30 | #8 of 21 ▲ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 75.8% | #138 of 224 ▲ 12 | #11 of 21 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 657 | #41 of 246 | #10 of 21 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.8:1 | #159 of 180 | #20 of 21 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 60.4% | #30 of 180 | #11 of 21 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 43.7% | #96 of 237 | #13 of 21 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -11.6% | #53 of 103 | #6 of 14 |
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
657
-93 (-12%) vs 2020
+24% since 1990-91, when it was 530
Student : Teacher
16.8:1
was 18.3:1
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 | 657 | 39.1 | 16.8:1 | 44% (287) |
| 2023-24 | 651 | 37.5 | 17.4:1 | 36% (237) |
| 2022-23 | 634 | 36.1 | 17.6:1 | 45% (283) |
| 2020-21 | 750 | 41 | 18.3:1 | 47% (350) |
| 2017-18 | 743 | 39.4 | 18.9:1 | 40% (297) |
| 2015-16 | 730 | 39 | 18.7:1 | 43% (317) |
| 2010-11 | 623 | 33 | 18.9:1 | 45% (283) |
| 2000-01 | 597 | 43 | 13.9:1 | 20% (122) |
| 1990-91 | 530 | 41 | 12.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Merrill Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 12% (743 to 657); teachers down 1% (39.4 to 39.1).
About Merrill Middle School
Merrill Middle School is a middle school in Des Moines, Iowa, reachable at (515) 242-8448. It offers grades 6 through 8 and has 657 students enrolled. It has 64% more students than the average for middle schools in Iowa (about 400).
Des Moines Independent Comm School District has 29,676 students in 59 schools, and Merrill Middle School is one of those schools.
White students are 59% of those enrolled at Merrill Middle School. The rest of enrollment is 16% Black, 13% Hispanic, 8% multiracial, and 3% Asian. Census estimates put the White share of Polk County's population at about 76%. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 60%.
Its staff includes 39.1 full-time-equivalent teachers, for about 16.8 students per teacher. The average for middle schools in Iowa, 15.2:1, is lower. Merrill Middle School has a free or reduced-price lunch rate of 44%.
On the allk12 Grade, Merrill Middle School lands at C+, ahead of 39% of Iowa public middle schools.
Merrill Middle School's average proficiency rate across its state test results of 72.2% is 2.1 points above the 70.1% the model predicts from its lunch-eligibility share.
For the population of Polk County, the median household earns about $83,576 a year, about 40% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. Across Polk County, 137 public schools serve about 77,436 students.
Merrill Middle School's nearest public school is Hanawalt Elementary (about 0.3 miles). The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. Compared with its nearest neighbors, Merrill Middle School ranks 1st of 8 on average proficiency.
Merrill Middle School is coded as City: Mid-size in federal locale data.
In 2024-25, the school enrolled 657, down from 750 in 2020-21. By 2024-25, the school had 16.8 students per teacher, compared with 18.3 in 2020-21.
You can use this page to share news and ask questions about fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. 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 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 Merrill Middle schools
2 other US public schools in 3 states are named Merrill Middle. Merrill Middle School is the largest of the 3.
- Merrill Middle SchoolDENVER, CO · 611 students
- Merrill Middle SchoolMERRILL, MI · 97 students
Nearby schools
- Hanawalt Elementary0.3 mi · 312
- Roosevelt High School0.8 mi · 2,051
- Hubbell Elementary1.0 mi · 362
- Greenwood Elementary School1.2 mi · 293
- Hillside Elementary School1.2 mi · 548
- Windsor Elementary1.2 mi · 254
Frequently asked questions
About Merrill Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Merrill Middle School?
Merrill Middle School enrolls approximately 657 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Merrill Middle School serve?
Merrill Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Merrill Middle School?
Approximately 16.8:1 students per teacher at Merrill Middle School.
How diverse is Merrill Middle School?
Merrill Middle School reports a student body of 59% White, 13% Hispanic, 16% Black, 3% Asian, 8% Two or more.
Is Merrill Middle School public or private?
Merrill Middle 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.