1
What's the one class at Thomas Jefferson High School every student should take?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,146
High
DISTRICT 1,240 · STATE 468
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·COUNCIL BLUFFS COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 190822000435
Thomas Jefferson High School
2501 W Broadway, Council Bluffs, IA 51501 · (712) 328-6493 · Pottawattamie County
GRADES 09–12HIGH21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL1,146 STUDENTS
F
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 2% 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.
- 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 high schools
Student : Teacher
17.4:1
66 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.4:1 · STATE 17.3:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
55%
628 students
DISTRICT 42% · 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 | 294 | 26% |
| Grade 10 | 275 | 24% |
| Grade 11 | 288 | 25% |
| Grade 12 | 289 | 25% |
Student demographics
48%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 44% · 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
49.6%
IA avg 73.6% . -2.4pp since 2023
Math
51.5%
IA avg 70.9% . +1.5pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 50 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 52 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 2 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 2 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 49.6% | 51.5% |
| 2023-24 | 52.0% | 50.0% |
% 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
48.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
64.5%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-16.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 48% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 65% 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 Thomas Jefferson High School
Thomas Jefferson High School's state test result (48.3% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Jefferson High School this school | 1,146 | 54.8% | 48.3% |
| Fort Dodge High School Fort Dodge | 1,020 | 48.3% | 54.2% |
| East High School Sioux City | 1,495 | 51.6% | 64.1% |
| Saydel High School Des Moines | 458 | 52.8% | 48.9% |
| Abraham Lincoln High School Council Bluffs | 1,333 | 46.1% | 52.6% |
| Fort Madison Junior/Senior High School Fort Madison | 852 | 51.8% | 63.6% |
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 Thomas Jefferson High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Pottawattamie County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 48.3% | #304 of 313 | #8 of 8 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 51.5% | #292 of 314 no change | #7 of 8 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 49.6% | #307 of 314 ▼ 3 | #8 of 8 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,146 | #39 of 340 | #2 of 8 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.4:1 | #230 of 259 | #7 of 8 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 48.0% | #54 of 260 | #1 of 8 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 54.8% | #30 of 320 | #1 of 8 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -7.4% | #73 of 125 | N/A |
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
1,146
-125 (-10%) vs 2020
-8% since 1990-91, when it was 1,245
Student : Teacher
17.4:1
was 19.3:1
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 | 1,146 | 66 | 17.4:1 | 55% (628) |
| 2023-24 | 1,206 | 64.1 | 18.8:1 | 57% (688) |
| 2022-23 | 1,243 | 64.8 | 19.2:1 | 65% (807) |
| 2020-21 | 1,271 | 66 | 19.3:1 | 79% (1,003) |
| 2017-18 | 1,237 | 76.1 | 16.3:1 | 58% (714) |
| 2015-16 | 1,220 | 74 | 16.5:1 | 65% (797) |
| 2010-11 | 1,294 | 62 | 20.9:1 | 63% (817) |
| 2000-01 | 1,499 | 79 | 19.0:1 | 23% (343) |
| 1990-91 | 1,245 | 80 | 15.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Thomas Jefferson High School.
Since 2017-18: students down 7% (1,237 to 1,146); teachers down 13% (76.1 to 66).
About Thomas Jefferson High School
Thomas Jefferson High School is a public high-enrollment high school in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It educates 1,146 students in grades 9 through 12. The typical figure for high schools in Iowa is about 468 students.
Council Bluffs Comm School District has 8,299 students in 15 schools, and Thomas Jefferson High School is one of those schools.
White students are the majority at Thomas Jefferson High School, with 69% of enrollment. Other groups make up 19% Hispanic, 5% Black, and 4% multiracial. Pottawattamie County as a whole is about 88% White, so the school's share is lower. The school's diversity index is 48%, meaning two students picked at random have a 48% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
Teachers at the school number 66 full-time equivalents, and the ratio is 17.4:1. For comparison, high schools in Iowa average 17.3:1. Roughly 55% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. By comparison, the figure for public schools in Pottawattamie County is 40%.
Thomas Jefferson High School is graded F by allk12, scoring above 2% of Iowa public high schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Thomas Jefferson High School ranks in the bottom 10% of Iowa schools after adjusting test results for student poverty. Actual: 48.3%. Predicted: 64.5%. Difference: 16.2 points.
Across Pottawattamie County, the median household income is $73,602, roughly 24% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and about 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Pottawattamie County is home to 35 public schools and about 15,270 public school students.
The next-closest public school is Edison Elementary School, about 0.3 miles away. The count of other public schools within five miles is at least 8. Its average proficiency rate of 48.3% is below the 57.0% average for nearby schools.
The National Center for Education Statistics classifies the school's location as Suburb: Large, meaning it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Enrollment dropped 10% from its 2020-21 level of 1,271. Its ratio of students to teachers was 19.3:1 in 2020-21, and 17.4:1 in 2024-25.
Discussion on this page can cover school events, clubs, and volunteer needs. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Pottawattamie County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
93,424
Census ACS
Median income
$73,602
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
24%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
35
15,270 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Council Bluffs Comm School District
- Abraham Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 1,333 students
- Gerald W Kirn Middle SchoolMiddle · 913 students
- Woodrow Wilson Middle SchoolMiddle · 855 students
- College View ElementaryElementary · 488 students
- Roosevelt Elementary SchoolElementary · 455 students
- Longfellow Elementary SchoolElementary · 431 students
Other schools in Council Bluffs
- Abraham Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 1,333 students
- Lewis Central Senior High SchoolHigh · 1,020 students
- Gerald W Kirn Middle SchoolMiddle · 913 students
- Titan Hill Intermediate SchoolElementary · 901 students
- Woodrow Wilson Middle SchoolMiddle · 855 students
- Lewis Central Middle SchoolMiddle · 720 students
Other Thomas Jefferson High schools
6 other US public schools in 6 states are named Thomas Jefferson High. Thomas Jefferson High School is the 5th largest of the 7.
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolCedar Rapids, IA · 1,501 students
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolAUBURN, WA · 1,810 students
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolDALLAS, TX · 1,516 students
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolDENVER, CO · 1,390 students
- Thomas Jefferson High SchoolJefferson Hills, PA · 1,041 students
Nearby schools
- Edison Elementary School0.3 mi · 384
- Franklin Elementary School0.7 mi · 421
- Woodrow Wilson Middle School0.8 mi · 855
- Roosevelt Elementary School0.8 mi · 455
- Rue Elementary School0.9 mi · 385
- Anne E. Nelson Early Learning Center1.4 mi · 119
Frequently asked questions
About Thomas Jefferson High SchoolHow large is Thomas Jefferson High School?
Thomas Jefferson High School enrolls approximately 1,146 students in grades 09-12.
What age range does Thomas Jefferson High School serve?
Thomas Jefferson High School serves students from grade 09 through grade 12.
How many teachers does Thomas Jefferson High School have?
Thomas Jefferson High School employs 66 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 17.4:1.
What is the student diversity at Thomas Jefferson High School?
Student demographics at Thomas Jefferson High School are roughly 69% White, 19% Hispanic, 5% Black, 1% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Is Thomas Jefferson High School public or private?
Thomas Jefferson High School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Council Bluffs Comm School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.