Stowe Elementary School

Set in Des Moines, Iowa, Stowe Elementary School is a reasonably sized primary school, one of the schools within Des Moines Independent Comm School District. It caters to 297 students across grades K through 5.

Des Moines Independent Comm School District comprises 59 schools with combined enrollment of 29,676 students; Stowe Elementary School is among them.

Looking at the student body, Stowe Elementary School lists that the largest single group is Hispanic at 42%, but no single group is in the majority. Beyond that, the school lists 32% White, 17% Black, 6% multiracial, 3% Asian. By comparison, Polk County as a whole is about 10% Hispanic, so the school skews meaningfully more Hispanic than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, On paper, Stowe Elementary School has 25 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.1:1. Statewide, the average ratio sits near 13.7:1, putting Stowe Elementary School tighter than the state norm the norm. An estimated 84% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Polk County runs at roughly 49%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, On a poverty-adjusted basis, Stowe Elementary School sits in the bottom 10% statewide. Predicted proficiency from the FRL regression is roughly 49.8%; actual is 33.8%, a gap of -16.1 points.

Around the school, census data for Polk County shows the typical household earns roughly $83,576 per year, 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. Across Polk County's 137 public schools (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students), Stowe Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

McKee Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.8 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Stowe Elementary School ranks 8th on composite proficiency, beneath the local average of 46.8%.

The campus sits in a metropolitan setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Stowe Elementary School has declined 19%, going from 367 students in 2018 to 297 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share contracted from 47% to 32%.

On allk12, the feed for Stowe Elementary School typically covers classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. The community welcomes input from current and former families.