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What's one thing North High School gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,428
High
DISTRICT 1,512 · STATE 468
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 190897000566
North High School
501 Holcomb Ave, Des Moines, IA 50313 · (515) 242-7200 · Polk County
GRADES 09–12HIGH12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL1,428 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 4% of Iowa public high schools
- FTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats 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 high schools
Student : Teacher
21.5:1
66 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 24.0:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
84%
1,199 students
DISTRICT 76% · STATE 41%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 9 | 324 | 23% |
| Grade 10 | 352 | 25% |
| Grade 11 | 336 | 24% |
| Grade 12 | 416 | 29% |
Student demographics
74%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
45.3%
IA avg 73.6% . +0.7pp since 2023
Math
36.0%
IA avg 70.9% . +0.6pp 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 36 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Iowa schools, those numbers are about 74 and 71. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2023, while math scores have held steady.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 45.3% | 36.0% |
| 2023-24 | 44.6% | 35.4% |
% Proficient, all students and all tested grades.
Source: ISASP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of IA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
39.1%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
50.0%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-10.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 39% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 50% 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 →
Schools most like North High School
North High School's state test result (39.1% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| North High School this school | 1,428 | 84.0% | 39.1% |
| Lincoln High School Des Moines | 2,364 | 74.9% | 41.1% |
| East High School Des Moines | 1,952 | 78.4% | 38.3% |
| Hoover High School Des Moines | 898 | 80.0% | 43.6% |
| Valley High School West Des Moines | 2,178 | 68.0% | 65.5% |
| Storm Lake High School Storm Lake | 851 | 65.6% | 47.1% |
Matched among Iowa high 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 North High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 39.1% | #310 of 313 | #17 of 18 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 36.0% | #312 of 314 ▼ 3 | #17 of 18 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 45.3% | #313 of 314 ▼ 2 | #18 of 18 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,428 | #24 of 340 | #8 of 20 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 21.5:1 | #255 of 259 | #15 of 18 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 73.9% | #2 of 260 | #2 of 18 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 84.0% | #1 of 320 | #1 of 19 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +8.3% | #85 of 133 | #8 of 13 |
Ranked against other public high 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
1,428
-69 (-5%) vs 2020
+47% since 1990-91, when it was 969
Student : Teacher
21.5:1
was 22.7:1
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 | 1,428 | 66.5 | 21.5:1 | 84% (1,199) |
| 2023-24 | 1,514 | 68.1 | 22.3:1 | 75% (1,136) |
| 2022-23 | 1,458 | 66 | 22.1:1 | 87% (1,264) |
| 2020-21 | 1,497 | 66 | 22.7:1 | 87% (1,302) |
| 2017-18 | 1,319 | 71 | 18.6:1 | 86% (1,136) |
| 2015-16 | 1,259 | 79 | 15.9:1 | 85% (1,065) |
| 2010-11 | 1,136 | 66 | 17.2:1 | 77% (872) |
| 2000-01 | 1,132 | 76 | 14.9:1 | 59% (668) |
| 1990-91 | 969 | 74 | 13.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for North High School.
Since 2017-18: students up 8% (1,319 to 1,428); teachers down 6% (71 to 66.5).
About North High School
North High School is a large high school in Des Moines, Iowa, one of the schools in Des Moines Independent Comm School District. The school reports 1,428 students in grades 9 through 12. The typical figure for high schools in Iowa is about 468 students.
Des Moines Independent Comm School District counts 59 schools and 29,676 students, including North High School.
North High School's enrollment has no majority group, and Hispanic students are the largest at 39%. Smaller groups are 24% Black, 19% White, 11% Asian, and 6% multiracial. County-wide, 10% of Polk County residents are Hispanic. The chance that two students picked at random at North High School belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 74%.
Dividing enrollment by its 66.5 full-time-equivalent teachers gives a ratio of about 21.5:1. The average ratio among high schools in Iowa is 17.3:1, lower than at this school. North High School reports 84% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. For comparison, public schools in Polk County average 49%.
North High School is graded F by allk12, scoring above 4% of Iowa public high schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
North High School scores 10.8 points below its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests: 39.1% actual versus 50.0% predicted. That puts it in the bottom 10% of Iowa schools on BeatsExpectations.
County data help place the school in context: in Polk County, median household income is about $83,576, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 40%, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. North High School is among the 137 public schools in Polk County.
The closest public school to North High School is Findley Elementary School, about 0.5 miles away. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. Among 8 nearby schools that report test results, North High School ranks 6th on proficiency.
The school is inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000, according to its NCES locale (City: Mid-size).
The student count in 2024-25 was 1,428, 5% below the 1,497 of 2020-21. Students per teacher fell from 22.7 in 2020-21 to 21.5 in 2024-25.
The allk12 site hosts a discussion page for North High School covering things like enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
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
- Hoover High SchoolHigh · 898 students
- Weeks Middle SchoolMiddle · 688 students
- McCombs Middle SchoolMiddle · 670 students
Other schools in Des Moines
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,364 students
- Roosevelt High SchoolHigh · 2,051 students
- East High SchoolHigh · 1,952 students
- Hoover High SchoolHigh · 898 students
- Weeks Middle SchoolMiddle · 688 students
- McCombs Middle SchoolMiddle · 670 students
Other North High schools
21 other US public schools in 14 states are named North High. North High School is the 13th largest of the 22.
- North High SchoolSioux City, IA · 1,529 students
- North High SchoolDavenport, IA · 1,190 students
- North High SchoolEdmond, OK · 2,532 students
- North HighBakersfield, CA · 2,135 students
- North HighWichita, KS · 2,041 students
Nearby schools
- Findley Elementary School0.5 mi · 324
- Moulton Elementary School0.7 mi · 465
- Harding Middle School0.8 mi · 603
- Great Oaks High School and Career Center0.8 mi · 72
- Jessie Franklin Taylor0.9 mi · 195
- Oak Park1.0 mi · 288
Frequently asked questions
About North High SchoolHow many students attend North High School?
North High School enrolls approximately 1,428 students in grades 09-12.
What age range does North High School serve?
North High School serves students from grade 09 through grade 12.
How many students per teacher at North High School?
Approximately 21.5:1 students per teacher at North High School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at North High School?
At North High School, the student body is approximately 19% White, 39% Hispanic, 24% Black, 11% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Is North High School public or private?
North High 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.