Urbandale Middle School

Urbandale Middle School is one of the large middle schools in Urbandale, Iowa, part of Urbandale Comm School District, with 892 students on its rolls from grades 6 through 8. Compared to the state average of about 400 students per school, that is 123% above typical.

Within Urbandale Comm School District, which oversees 6 schools and 4,165 students, Urbandale Middle School is one campus in the system.

On demographics, Urbandale Middle School lists that White students make up the majority at 63%. Other groups include 15% Hispanic, 9% Black, 7% Asian, 6% multiracial. By comparison, Polk County as a whole is about 76% White, so the school skews visibly less White than its surroundings.

On the resource side, The school employs 59 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 15.2:1. The state averages about 15.2:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Roughly 41% of students at Urbandale Middle School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. Set against Polk County (around 49%), the school's rate is somewhat below typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Urbandale Middle School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 71.3%, the actual is 72.4%, a residual of +1.2 points.

In the area at large, Polk County reports that median household earnings sit near $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), Urbandale Middle School is one campus in the mix.

Urbandale High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Urbandale Middle School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Urbandale Middle School at 4th of 9; the average score across the group is 66.5%.

Urbandale Middle School operates from a residential location.

Trend over the last 7 years. Urbandale Middle School's enrollment has edged down 5% since 2018, when it stood at 938 (now 892). The White share of enrollment declined from 75% to 63% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 17.6:1 in 2018 to 15.2:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, posts here usually surface around fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.