Enrollment
245
Elementary
DISTRICT 333 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·IOWA CITY COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 191470000899
Robert Lucas Elementary School
830 Southlawn Dr, Iowa City, IA 52245 · (319) 688-1140 · Johnson County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL245 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 12% of Iowa public elementary schools
- C-Test 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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
13.5:1
18 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.4:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
49%
121 students
DISTRICT 45% · 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 | 23 | 9% |
| Kindergarten | 31 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 40 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 42 | 17% |
| Grade 3 | 42 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 39 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 28 | 11% |
This year's kindergarten class (31) is 11% larger than its 5th grade class (28).
Student demographics
68%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 66% · 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
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
58.1%
IA avg 73.6% . -6.0pp since 2023
Math
58.1%
IA avg 70.9% . +0.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 58 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 58 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Iowa schools, those numbers are about 74 and 71. Reading and writing scores are down about 6 points since 2023, while math scores have held steady.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 58.1% | 58.1% |
| 2023-24 | 64.1% | 57.8% |
% 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
59.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
67.2%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-8.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 59% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 67% 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 Robert Lucas Elementary School
Robert Lucas Elementary School's state test result (59.0% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 3 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Lucas Elementary School this school | 245 | 49.4% | 59.0% |
| Truman Early Learning Center Cedar Rapids | 279 | 43.4% | N/A |
| Hanawalt Elementary Des Moines | 312 | 49.4% | 65.9% |
| Children's Village West Davenport | 296 | 52.4% | N/A |
| Longfellow Elementary School Iowa City | 325 | 53.5% | 64.0% |
| McKinley Elementary School Davenport | 421 | 47.7% | 61.0% |
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 Robert Lucas Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Johnson County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 59.0% | #466 of 564 | #23 of 28 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 58.1% | #484 of 564 ▼ 3 | #23 of 28 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 58.1% | #464 of 564 ▼ 78 | #24 of 28 ▼ 4 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 245 | #486 of 705 | #20 of 30 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.5:1 | #285 of 561 | #14 of 23 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 67.7% | #73 of 561 | #7 of 23 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 49.4% | #228 of 666 | #9 of 30 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -46.2% | #7 of 359 | #3 of 20 |
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
245
-64 (-21%) vs 2020
-50% since 1990-91, when it was 493
Student : Teacher
13.5:1
was 16.3:1
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 | 245 | 18.1 | 13.5:1 | 49% (121) |
| 2023-24 | 274 | 22.9 | 12.0:1 | 53% (146) |
| 2022-23 | 285 | 25 | 11.4:1 | 44% (124) |
| 2020-21 | 309 | 19 | 16.3:1 | 39% (121) |
| 2017-18 | 455 | 36.9 | 12.3:1 | 57% (258) |
| 2015-16 | 437 | 29 | 15.1:1 | 61% (267) |
| 2010-11 | 411 | 30 | 13.7:1 | 45% (186) |
| 2000-01 | 390 | 20 | 19.5:1 | 21% (81) |
| 1990-91 | 493 | 22 | 22.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Robert Lucas Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 46% (455 to 245); teachers down 51% (36.9 to 18.1).
About Robert Lucas Elementary School
At 830 Southlawn Dr in Iowa City, Iowa, Robert Lucas Elementary School operates as a small elementary school. It covers pre-K through 5, with a total enrollment of 245 students. Statewide, elementary schools in Iowa average about 325 students each.
In Iowa City Comm School District, 29 schools enroll a combined 15,111 students.
White students are the largest group at Robert Lucas Elementary School, with 43% of enrollment. The rest of enrollment is 33% Black, 11% Hispanic, and 11% multiracial. Among all residents of Johnson County, the White share is about 76%. By the diversity index, Robert Lucas Elementary School comes in at 68%.
Staffing totals 18.1 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the student-to-teacher ratio is 13.5:1. Across elementary schools in Iowa, the average ratio is about 13.7:1. A measure often used for student poverty, free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, stands at 49%. That is 12 points above the 37% average for public schools in Johnson County.
allk12 grades Robert Lucas Elementary School a D. The grade compares the school only with Iowa public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
On BeatsExpectations, Robert Lucas Elementary School is 8.3 points below its prediction, a result in the middle 80% of Iowa schools.
Robert Lucas Elementary School is located in Johnson County, where median household income is about $74,935, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 55%, and about 7% of people live in poverty. Robert Lucas Elementary School is one of 43 public schools in Johnson County, which together enroll about 20,019 students.
The closest public school to Robert Lucas Elementary School is Southeast Middle School, about 0.6 miles away. Within five miles of Robert Lucas Elementary School, there are at least 8 other public schools. On proficiency, Robert Lucas Elementary School is behind the 62.9% nearby average, ranking 6th of 8.
The school is inside a principal city with a population under 100,000, according to its NCES locale (City: Small).
The number of students declined from 309 to 245 over 4 years. Students per teacher fell from 16.3 in 2020-21 to 13.5 in 2024-25.
Posts about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater are welcome on this page. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
Johnson County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
156,639
Census ACS
Median income
$74,935
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
55%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
43
20,019 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Iowa City Comm School District
- Iowa City High SchoolHigh · 1,666 students
- West Senior High SchoolHigh · 1,514 students
- Liberty High SchoolHigh · 1,286 students
- Southeast Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,269 students
- Northwest Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,113 students
- North Central Middle SchoolMiddle · 925 students
Other schools in Iowa City
- Iowa City High SchoolHigh · 1,666 students
- West Senior High SchoolHigh · 1,514 students
- Southeast Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,269 students
- Herbert Hoover Elementary SchoolElementary · 464 students
- Weber ElementaryElementary · 456 students
- Ernest Horn Elementary SchoolElementary · 453 students
Nearby schools
- Southeast Middle School0.6 mi · 1,269
- Elizabeth Tate Alt. High School0.8 mi · 180
- Helen Lemme Elementary School0.8 mi · 340
- Iowa City High School0.9 mi · 1,666
- Mark Twain Elementary1.3 mi · 213
- Herbert Hoover Elementary School1.3 mi · 464
Frequently asked questions
About Robert Lucas Elementary SchoolHow large is Robert Lucas Elementary School?
Robert Lucas Elementary School enrolls approximately 245 students in grades PK-05.
What grades does Robert Lucas Elementary School serve?
Robert Lucas Elementary School serves grades PK-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Robert Lucas Elementary School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Robert Lucas Elementary School is approximately 13.5:1 (18 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Robert Lucas Elementary School?
At Robert Lucas Elementary School, the student body is approximately 43% White, 11% Hispanic, 33% Black, 2% Asian, 11% Two or more.
Is Robert Lucas Elementary School public or private?
Robert Lucas Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Iowa City Comm School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.