Samuelson Elementary School

Samuelson Elementary School is an elementary campus of middle-of-the-pack scale in Des Moines, Iowa, one of the schools within Des Moines Independent Comm School District, teacheing 386 students in grades K through 5.

Des Moines Independent Comm School District runs 59 schools in total, collectively educating 29,676 students. Samuelson Elementary School is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Samuelson Elementary School records that the largest single group is Asian at 31%, but no single group is in the majority. Beyond that, the school shows 25% Black, 23% White, 14% Hispanic, 8% multiracial. That is noticeably more Asian than the county at large, where the share is closer to 5%.

Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 31 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 12.6:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.7:1 average. Roughly 79% of students at Samuelson Elementary School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is higher than Polk County's rate of about 49%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Samuelson Elementary School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 52.4%; this one delivers 48.5%.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Polk County) logs that median household income runs about $83,576, about 40% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Polk County's 137 public schools (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students), Samuelson Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Woodlawn Early Childhood Center is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.6 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Samuelson Elementary School. On composite proficiency, Samuelson Elementary School comes 4th of 8 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 50.2%.

The campus sits in an urban setting.

Five-year trend. Samuelson Elementary School's enrollment has declined 14% since 2018, when it stood at 449 (now 386). The White share of enrollment ticked down from 29% to 23% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 14.2:1 in 2018 to 12.6:1 today.

On the community side, the feed for Samuelson Elementary School typically covers pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.