Westwood Elementary School

Westwood Elementary School is an elementary campus of big scale in Ankeny, Iowa, overseen by Ankeny Comm School District, teacheing 551 students in grades K through 5. That puts it 70% above the typical public school in Iowa, which averages around 325 students.

Ankeny Comm School District runs 18 schools in total, collectively educating 12,746 students. Westwood Elementary School is one of those campuses.

On demographics, Westwood Elementary School shows that the largest single group is White, at 79% of enrollment. The remainder comes out to 9% Hispanic, 7% multiracial, 4% Black. That composition is broadly in line with Polk County as a whole.

On the income-and-resources front, The school currently runs with 35 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 15.7:1. The state averages around 13.7:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. Around 18% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is below Polk County's rate of about 49%.

On a demographically-adjusted basis, Westwood Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 83.1%, the actual is 82.9%, a residual of -0.3 points.

Zooming out to the county, ACS estimates for Polk County put the typical household earns roughly $83,576 per year, about 40% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Polk County runs 137 public schools (combined enrollment of about 77,436 students), of which Westwood Elementary School is one.

Ankeny Centennial High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.1 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Westwood Elementary School ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, above the local average of 80.3%.

The school occupies an outer-ring site.

Five-year trend. Westwood Elementary School's enrollment has edged down 16% since 2018, when it stood at 653 (now 551). Over the same period, the White share declined from 86% to 79%. Class-load math has narrowed: from 18.9:1 in 2018 to 15.7:1 in 2025.

On allk12, the page collects discussion, questions, and updates around enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.