West Marshall High School

As a modestly sized senior high in State Center, Iowa, West Marshall High School enrolls 292 students from grades 9 through 12, one of the schools within West Marshall Comm School District. That puts it 38% leaner than the typical public school in Iowa, which averages around 468 students.

Across the 3 schools in West Marshall Comm School District (917 students total), West Marshall High School accounts for its share of the district's footprint.

Demographically, West Marshall High School logs that nearly all students (92%) are White. Beyond that, the school shows 6% Hispanic. By comparison, Marshall County as a whole is about 71% White, so the school skews noticeably more White than its surroundings.

In terms of school funding signals, West Marshall High School records 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 16.5:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 17.3:1 average. An estimated 25% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. That share is lower than Marshall County's rate of about 65%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, West Marshall High School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 79.4%, the actual is 80.8%, a residual of +1.3 points.

Around the school, community-level numbers for Marshall County indicate median household earnings sit near $73,315, roughly 23% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Marshall County's 17 public schools (combined enrollment of about 6,903 students), West Marshall High School is one campus in the mix.

West Marshall Middle School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. Counting just inside five miles, 2 other public schools cluster around West Marshall High School. On composite proficiency, West Marshall High School comes 2nd of 9 in the immediate cluster, above the nearby-schools average of 71.6%.

West Marshall High School operates from a small-town location.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count declined 3%: 302 students in 2018 compared to 292 in 2025. Class-load math has loosened: from 15.4:1 in 2018 to 16.5:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, 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.