Enrollment
297
Elementary
DISTRICT 347 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 190897000577
Stowe Elementary School
1411 E 33rd St, Des Moines, IA 50317 · (515) 242-8435 · Polk County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL297 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 1% 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.
- FBeats 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
12.1:1
25 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.3:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
84%
250 students
DISTRICT 76% · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 49 | 16% |
| Grade 1 | 62 | 21% |
| Grade 2 | 57 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 54 | 18% |
| Grade 4 | 37 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 38 | 13% |
This year's kindergarten class (49) is 29% larger than its 5th grade class (38).
Student demographics
69%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
44.8%
IA avg 73.6% . +14.0pp since 2023
Math
36.2%
IA avg 70.9% . +1.2pp 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 are up about 14 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 1 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 44.8% | 36.2% |
| 2023-24 | 30.8% | 35.0% |
% 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
33.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
49.8%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-16.1pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 34% 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 Stowe Elementary School
Stowe Elementary School's state test result (33.8% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stowe Elementary School this school | 297 | 84.2% | 33.8% |
| McKinley Elementary School Des Moines | 275 | 86.9% | 46.4% |
| Wright Elementary School Des Moines | 265 | 77.7% | 48.5% |
| Willard Elementary School Des Moines | 247 | 88.7% | 52.1% |
| Morris Elementary School Des Moines | 519 | 87.7% | 47.3% |
| Studebaker Elementary School Des Moines | 561 | 86.3% | 42.2% |
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 Stowe Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 33.8% | #559 of 564 | #76 of 78 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 36.2% | #560 of 564 ▼ 1 | #77 of 78 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 44.8% | #535 of 564 ▲ 25 | #65 of 78 ▲ 12 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 297 | #384 of 705 | #67 of 89 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.1:1 | #124 of 561 | #18 of 86 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 69.0% | #58 of 561 | #23 of 86 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 84.2% | #29 of 666 | #20 of 89 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -19.1% | #106 of 359 | #20 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
297
-1 (0%) vs 2020
-31% since 1990-91, when it was 429
Student : Teacher
12.1:1
was 9.6:1
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 | 297 | 24.6 | 12.1:1 | 84% (250) |
| 2023-24 | 311 | 24.8 | 12.5:1 | 78% (242) |
| 2022-23 | 313 | 25.6 | 12.3:1 | 88% (274) |
| 2020-21 | 298 | 31 | 9.6:1 | 88% (262) |
| 2017-18 | 367 | 30.6 | 12.0:1 | 85% (313) |
| 2015-16 | 374 | 34 | 11.0:1 | 84% (313) |
| 2010-11 | 416 | 31 | 13.4:1 | 84% (350) |
| 2000-01 | 332 | 26 | 12.8:1 | 54% (179) |
| 1990-91 | 429 | 26 | 16.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Stowe Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 19% (367 to 297); teachers down 20% (30.6 to 24.6).
About Stowe Elementary School
Stowe Elementary School is a medium-sized elementary school in Des Moines, Iowa, under Des Moines Independent Comm School District. The school enrolls 297 students, from kindergarten through 5.
The 59 schools in Des Moines Independent Comm School District enroll 29,676 students altogether, Stowe Elementary School among them.
No single group makes up more than half of enrollment at Stowe Elementary School. The largest is Hispanic students, at 42%. Other students are 32% White, 17% Black, 6% multiracial, and 3% Asian. That is higher than the 10% Hispanic share among all Polk County residents. The school's diversity index is 69%, meaning two students picked at random have a 69% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
Stowe Elementary School counts 24.6 full-time-equivalent teachers, about 12.1 students for each one. On average, elementary schools in Iowa have 13.7:1, compared with 12.1:1 here. About 84% of enrolled students meet the income rules for free or reduced-price lunch. Public schools in Polk County average 49%.
allk12 grades Stowe Elementary School an F. The grade compares the school only with Iowa public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
Predicted from its free or reduced-price lunch share, Stowe Elementary School would score about 49.8%. It scores 33.8%, a bottom-10% result among Iowa schools on BeatsExpectations.
Polk County has these Census figures: the median household income is $83,576, about 40% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. In all, Polk County has 137 public schools and roughly 77,436 students.
McKee Elementary School is the public school closest to Stowe Elementary School, about 0.8 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. On average proficiency, Stowe Elementary School is 8th of 8 nearby schools with test data.
Federal records code the school's setting as City: Mid-size.
Enrollment has been fairly stable: 298 in 2020-21 and 297 in 2024-25. By 2024-25, the school had 12.1 students per teacher, compared with 9.6 in 2020-21.
Discussion on this page can cover school events, clubs, and volunteer needs. 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
- 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 Stowe Elementary schools
4 other US public schools in 4 states are named Stowe Elementary. Stowe Elementary School is the 4th largest of the 5.
- Stowe Elementary SchoolChicago, IL · 558 students
- Stowe Elementary SchoolStowe, VT · 379 students
- Stowe Elementary SchoolStowe, VT · 347 students
- STOWE ELEMENTARYDULUTH, MN · 245 students
Nearby schools
- McKee Elementary School0.8 mi · 235
- Willard Elementary School1.1 mi · 247
- Phillips Elementary1.1 mi · 263
- Hoyt Middle School1.3 mi · 455
- Brubaker Elementary School1.4 mi · 622
- Goodrell Middle School1.5 mi · 511
Frequently asked questions
About Stowe Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Stowe Elementary School?
Stowe Elementary School enrolls approximately 297 students in grades KG-05.
What grades does Stowe Elementary School serve?
Stowe Elementary School serves grades KG-05.
How many students per teacher at Stowe Elementary School?
Approximately 12.1:1 students per teacher at Stowe Elementary School.
How diverse is Stowe Elementary School?
Stowe Elementary School reports a student body of 32% White, 42% Hispanic, 17% Black, 3% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Who oversees Stowe Elementary School?
Stowe Elementary School is overseen by Des Moines Independent Comm School District in Polk County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.