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Parents: what's one thing you'd want the Moulton Elementary School administration to hear?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
465
Elementary
DISTRICT 347 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 190897000565
Moulton Elementary School
1541 8th Street, Des Moines, IA 50314 · (515) 242-8427 · Polk County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL465 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 12% of Iowa public elementary schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- CBeats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
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
14.3:1
33 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.3:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
94%
438 students
DISTRICT 76% · STATE 41%
Community
6
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 | 16 | 3% |
| Kindergarten | 67 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 79 | 17% |
| Grade 2 | 77 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 84 | 18% |
| Grade 4 | 70 | 15% |
| Grade 5 | 72 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (67) is 7% smaller than its 5th grade class (72).
Student demographics
63%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
44.5%
IA avg 73.6% . +6.3pp since 2023
Math
47.0%
IA avg 70.9% . +2.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 45 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 47 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 6 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 3 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 44.5% | 47.0% |
| 2023-24 | 38.2% | 44.1% |
% 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
42.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
44.8%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-2.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 42% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 45% 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 Moulton Elementary School
Moulton Elementary School's state test result (42.2% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moulton Elementary School this school | 465 | 94.2% | 42.2% |
| King Elementary School Des Moines | 315 | 96.2% | 29.9% |
| Van Buren Elementary School Cedar Rapids | 429 | 83.7% | 43.7% |
| Cunningham School Waterloo | 443 | 91.4% | 38.1% |
| Irving Elementary School Waterloo | 353 | 89.2% | 61.1% |
| Monroe Elementary School Des Moines | 341 | 90.3% | 37.5% |
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 Moulton Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 42.2% | #541 of 564 | #67 of 78 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 47.0% | #536 of 564 ▲ 7 | #66 of 78 ▲ 5 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 44.5% | #536 of 564 ▲ 9 | #66 of 78 ▲ 5 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 465 | #127 of 705 | #39 of 89 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.3:1 | #375 of 561 | #49 of 86 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 63.3% | #112 of 561 | #37 of 86 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 94.2% | #2 of 666 | #2 of 89 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -7.7% | #251 of 359 | #43 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
465
-16 (-3%) vs 2020
+19% since 1990-91, when it was 392
Student : Teacher
14.3:1
was 12.0:1
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 | 465 | 32.6 | 14.3:1 | 94% (438) |
| 2023-24 | 450 | 34.8 | 12.9:1 | 88% (397) |
| 2022-23 | 420 | 33.5 | 12.5:1 | 95% (400) |
| 2020-21 | 481 | 40 | 12.0:1 | 97% (467) |
| 2017-18 | 504 | 40 | 12.6:1 | 98% (492) |
| 2015-16 | 487 | 40 | 12.2:1 | 96% (469) |
| 2010-11 | 407 | 41 | 9.9:1 | 82% (334) |
| 2000-01 | 449 | 48 | 9.3:1 | 82% (366) |
| 1990-91 | 392 | 45 | 8.7:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Moulton Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 8% (504 to 465); teachers down 19% (40 to 32.6).
About Moulton Elementary School
In Des Moines, Iowa, Moulton Elementary School is a mid-sized elementary school. The school has 465 students in 2024-25 across pre-K through 5. That compares with an average of about 325 students for elementary schools in Iowa.
Moulton Elementary School sits within Des Moines Independent Comm School District, which has 59 schools and 29,676 students.
At Moulton Elementary School, 52% of students are Black. Smaller groups are 30% Hispanic, 6% White, 6% Asian, and 6% multiracial. For comparison, the population of Polk County is roughly 7% Black. The diversity index for Moulton Elementary School is 63%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
Its staff includes 32.6 full-time-equivalent teachers, for about 14.3 students per teacher. The average ratio among elementary schools in Iowa is similar, at 13.7:1. Roughly 94% of students at Moulton Elementary School can receive free or reduced-price lunch. The average for public schools in Polk County is 49%.
Moulton Elementary School holds a D allk12 Grade, placing it above 12% of Iowa public elementary schools.
When test results are adjusted for free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, Moulton Elementary School is 2.6 points below its prediction. Actual: 42.2%. Predicted: 44.8%.
Polk County is the school's county. There, median household income comes to about $83,576, 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Polk County's 137 public schools enroll about 77,436 students and include Moulton Elementary School.
Jessie Franklin Taylor sits about 0.6 miles from Moulton Elementary School. Inside a five-mile radius, there are at least 8 other public schools. Nearby schools with test data average 40.7% proficiency; Moulton Elementary School posts 42.2%.
Its NCES locale code is City: Mid-size: the school is inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
A 3% decline took enrollment from 481 in 2020-21 to 465 in 2024-25. There were more students per teacher in 2024-25 (14.3:1) than in 2020-21 (12.0:1).
This page is set up for the Moulton Elementary School community to discuss open houses, carpools, and field trips. Members of the school community can share what they know.
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 Moulton Elementary schools
5 other US public schools in 5 states are named Moulton Elementary. Moulton Elementary School is the 3rd largest of the 6.
- Moulton Elementary SchoolMoulton, IA · 103 students
- Moulton Elementary SchoolMoulton, AL · 695 students
- Moulton ElementaryLaguna Niguel, CA · 538 students
- Moulton Elementary SchoolShelbyville, IL · 455 students
- Moulton Elementary SchoolMOULTON, TX · 170 students
Nearby schools
- Jessie Franklin Taylor0.6 mi · 195
- North High School0.7 mi · 1,428
- King Elementary School0.8 mi · 315
- Carver Elementary1.0 mi · 436
- Edmunds Elementary School1.0 mi · 259
- Findley Elementary School1.2 mi · 324
Frequently asked questions
About Moulton Elementary SchoolHow large is Moulton Elementary School?
Moulton Elementary School enrolls approximately 465 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Moulton Elementary School serve?
Moulton Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many teachers does Moulton Elementary School have?
Moulton Elementary School employs 33 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 14.3:1.
What is the student diversity at Moulton Elementary School?
Student demographics at Moulton Elementary School are roughly 6% White, 30% Hispanic, 52% Black, 6% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Is Moulton Elementary School public or private?
Moulton 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.