Weeks Middle School

Located at 901 East Park Avenue, in Des Moines, Iowa, Weeks Middle School is a well-populated middle school that works with 688 students (grades 6 through 8), one of the schools within Des Moines Independent Comm School District. That puts it 72% bigger than the typical public school in Iowa, which averages around 400 students.

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

On the student-mix side, Weeks Middle School shows that 42% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder looks like 19% White, 18% Black, 14% Asian, 6% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 10% Hispanic, putting the school's mix visibly more Hispanic than the area baseline.

On the resource side, On paper, Weeks Middle School has 48 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 14.2:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 15.2:1 average. Around 87% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Polk County runs at roughly 49%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Weeks Middle School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 48.3%; this one delivers 42.8%.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Polk County indicate median household income runs about $83,576, about 40% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and the poverty rate sits near 7%. Weeks Middle School is one of 137 public schools in Polk County (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students).

Howe Elementary is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Weeks Middle School. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts Weeks Middle School at 6th of 9; the average score across the group is 44.0%.

The campus sits in a high-density setting.

Five-year trend. Weeks Middle School's enrollment has ticked down 10% since 2018, when it stood at 766 (now 688). The White share of enrollment contracted from 25% to 19% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 15.3:1 in 2018 to 14.2:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, posts here usually surface around sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.