1
What's the biggest difference between Vernon Middle School and what you expected?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
587
Middle
DISTRICT 433 · STATE 400
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MARION INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 191869001078
Vernon Middle School
1350 4th Avenue, Marion, IA 52302 · (319) 377-9401 · Linn County
GRADES 05–08MIDDLE22-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL587 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 41% of Iowa public middle schools
- B-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+Beats 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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
12.9:1
46 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.7:1 · STATE 15.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
38%
222 students
DISTRICT 40% · STATE 41%
Community
5
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 5 | 137 | 23% |
| Grade 6 | 132 | 22% |
| Grade 7 | 168 | 29% |
| Grade 8 | 150 | 26% |
Student demographics
35%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 36% · 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
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Vernon Middle School→Marion High School
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Marion Independent School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
76.6%
IA avg 73.6% . -1.4pp since 2023
Math
79.1%
IA avg 70.9% . +6.4pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 77 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 79 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 1 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 6 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 76.6% | 79.1% |
| 2023-24 | 78.0% | 72.7% |
% Proficient, all students and all tested grades.
Source: ISASP. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
74.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
73.0%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+1.2pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 74% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 73% typical for Iowa schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Iowa's top nor bottom 10%.
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 Vernon Middle School
Vernon Middle School's state test result (74.2% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vernon Middle School this school | 587 | 37.8% | 74.2% |
| Carroll Middle School Carroll | 459 | 38.6% | 69.0% |
| Grinnell Community Middle School Grinnell | 420 | 34.5% | 72.8% |
| Lewis Central Middle School Council Bluffs | 720 | 37.9% | 80.1% |
| Glenwood Middle School Glenwood | 453 | 39.1% | 87.4% |
| Boone Middle School Boone | 586 | 32.3% | 67.5% |
Matched among Iowa middle 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 Vernon Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Linn County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 74.2% | #126 of 224 | #9 of 17 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 79.1% | #81 of 224 ▲ 48 | #7 of 17 ▲ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 76.6% | #127 of 224 ▲ 1 | #9 of 17 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 587 | #54 of 246 | #7 of 17 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.9:1 | #35 of 180 | #2 of 15 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 34.7% | #87 of 180 | #13 of 15 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 37.8% | #129 of 237 | #7 of 17 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -9.3% | #68 of 103 | #8 of 10 |
Ranked against other public middle 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
587
-108 (-16%) vs 2020
+80% since 1990-91, when it was 327
Student : Teacher
12.9:1
was 18.8:1
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 | 587 | 45.6 | 12.9:1 | 38% (222) |
| 2023-24 | 621 | 43.9 | 14.2:1 | 40% (248) |
| 2022-23 | 668 | 42.7 | 15.6:1 | 40% (265) |
| 2020-21 | 695 | 37 | 18.8:1 | 35% (240) |
| 2017-18 | 647 | 37.8 | 17.1:1 | 30% (194) |
| 2015-16 | 636 | 38 | 16.7:1 | 29% (182) |
| 2010-11 | 473 | 38 | 12.4:1 | 30% (144) |
| 2000-01 | 402 | 27 | 14.9:1 | 16% (65) |
| 1990-91 | 327 | 25 | 13.1:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Vernon Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 9% (647 to 587); teachers up 21% (37.8 to 45.6).
About Vernon Middle School
In Marion, Iowa, part of Linn County, Vernon Middle School is a middle-grades school. The latest federal count shows 587 students in grades 5 through 8. The average for middle schools in Iowa is about 400 students, so this school is 47% bigger than average.
Vernon Middle School is one school in a 5-school district, Marion Independent School District, which enrolls 2,163 students.
Vernon Middle School's enrollment is 80% White. The remaining shares are 7% multiracial, 6% Hispanic, and 5% Black. County-wide, about 84% of residents are White. Pick two students at random and there is a 35% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Teachers at the school number 45.6 full-time equivalents, and the ratio is 12.9:1. On average, middle schools in Iowa have 15.2:1, compared with 12.9:1 here. The school's lunch program data list 38% of students as eligible for free or reduced-price meals. That tracks the 40% average for public schools in Linn County.
allk12 grades Vernon Middle School a C+. The grade compares the school only with Iowa public middle schools, because each state gives its own test.
When test results are adjusted for free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, Vernon Middle School is 1.2 points above its prediction. Actual: 74.2%. Predicted: 73.0%.
Across Linn County, the median household income is $77,649, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 35% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 6%. Linn County is home to 83 public schools and about 36,480 public school students.
Nearest public school: Francis Marion Intermediate School, about 0.4 miles away. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. Vernon Middle School is 5th of 7 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
Locale data from NCES put Vernon Middle School in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population between 100,000 and 250,000 (Suburb: Mid-size).
Over 4 years, Vernon Middle School's enrollment dropped 16%, to 587. The student-to-teacher ratio went down from 18.8:1 to 12.9:1.
Parents and students can post about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater at Vernon Middle School. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Linn County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
230,004
Census ACS
Median income
$77,649
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
35%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
83
36,480 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Marion Independent School District
- Marion High SchoolHigh · 735 students
- Francis Marion Intermediate SchoolElementary · 320 students
- Parkview Elementary SchoolElementary · 267 students
- Longfellow ElementaryElementary · 254 students
- Emerson Learning Center (HSAP)Combined
Other schools in Marion
- Linn-Mar High SchoolHigh · 2,229 students
- Marion High SchoolHigh · 735 students
- Boulder Peak Intermediate SchoolMiddle · 613 students
- Excelsior Middle SchoolMiddle · 594 students
- Hazel Point Intermediate SchoolMiddle · 563 students
- Echo Hill ElementaryElementary · 536 students
Other Vernon Middle schools
5 other US public schools in 5 states are named Vernon Middle. Vernon Middle School is the 2nd largest of the 6.
- Vernon Middle SchoolHARLINGEN, TX · 631 students
- Vernon MiddleMontclair, CA · 580 students
- Vernon Middle SchoolVERNON, TX · 390 students
- Vernon Middle SchoolLeesville, LA · 372 students
- VERNON MIDDLE SCHOOLVERNON, FL · 259 students
Nearby schools
- Francis Marion Intermediate School0.4 mi · 320
- Marion High School0.5 mi · 735
- Parkview Elementary School0.7 mi · 267
- Longfellow Elementary0.8 mi · 254
- Wilkins Elementary School1.1 mi · 348
- Novak Elementary School1.4 mi · 347
Frequently asked questions
About Vernon Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Vernon Middle School?
Vernon Middle School enrolls approximately 587 students in grades 05-08.
What age range does Vernon Middle School serve?
Vernon Middle School serves students from grade 05 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Vernon Middle School?
Approximately 12.9:1 students per teacher at Vernon Middle School.
What is the student diversity at Vernon Middle School?
Student demographics at Vernon Middle School are roughly 80% White, 6% Hispanic, 5% Black, 0% Asian, 7% Two or more.
What district is Vernon Middle School in?
Vernon Middle School is part of Marion Independent School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.