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What advice would you give to incoming students at Whittier Elementary School?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
369
Elementary
DISTRICT 404 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·INDIANOLA COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 191464000876
Whittier Elementary School
1306 W Salem, Indianola, IA 50125 · (515) 961-9570 · Warren County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY31-TOWNREGULAR SCHOOL369 STUDENTS
C
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 28% of Iowa public elementary schools
- C+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.
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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
16.0:1
23 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.9:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
31%
115 students
DISTRICT 27% · STATE 41%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 105 | 28% |
| Kindergarten | 40 | 11% |
| Grade 1 | 41 | 11% |
| Grade 2 | 44 | 12% |
| Grade 3 | 49 | 13% |
| Grade 4 | 45 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 45 | 12% |
This year's kindergarten class (40) is 11% smaller than its 5th grade class (45).
Student demographics
26%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 21% · 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
Based on grade levels within Indianola Comm School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
77.6%
IA avg 73.6% . +5.8pp since 2023
Math
73.1%
IA avg 70.9% . -1.7pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 78 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 73 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Iowa schools, those numbers are about 74 and 71. Reading and writing scores are up about 6 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 2 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 77.6% | 73.1% |
| 2023-24 | 71.8% | 74.8% |
% 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
70.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
76.4%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-5.9pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 70% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 76% 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 Whittier Elementary School
Whittier Elementary School's state test result (70.4% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whittier Elementary School this school | 369 | 31.2% | 70.4% |
| Garner-Hayfield-Ventura Elementary School Garner | 381 | 32.3% | 87.6% |
| West Marshall Elementary School State Center | 412 | 33.3% | 76.8% |
| South Hamilton Elem Jewell | 370 | 29.5% | 84.7% |
| Taft Elementary School Humboldt | 369 | 30.6% | 84.7% |
| Lincoln Elementary School Osage | 405 | 29.4% | 75.5% |
Matched among Iowa elementary 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 Whittier Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Warren County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 70.4% | #323 of 564 | #9 of 10 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 73.1% | #333 of 564 ▼ 23 | #10 of 10 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 77.6% | #193 of 564 ▲ 64 | #7 of 10 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 369 | #260 of 705 | #8 of 11 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.0:1 | #510 of 561 | #10 of 10 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 25.7% | #367 of 561 | #5 of 10 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 31.2% | #481 of 666 | #3 of 11 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -15.9% | #140 of 359 | #4 of 7 |
Ranked against other public elementary 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
369
-33 (-8%) vs 2020
+10% since 1990-91, when it was 335
Student : Teacher
16.0:1
was 18.3:1
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 | 369 | 23.1 | 16.0:1 | 31% (115) |
| 2023-24 | 397 | 22.4 | 17.7:1 | 30% (118) |
| 2022-23 | 417 | 23.2 | 18.0:1 | 29% (123) |
| 2020-21 | 402 | 22 | 18.3:1 | 21% (85) |
| 2017-18 | 439 | 21.6 | 20.3:1 | 12% (51) |
| 2015-16 | 404 | 24 | 16.8:1 | 27% (108) |
| 2010-11 | 411 | 22 | 18.7:1 | 25% (103) |
| 2000-01 | 413 | 28 | 14.8:1 | 13% (52) |
| 1990-91 | 335 | 17 | 19.7:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Whittier Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 16% (439 to 369); teachers up 7% (21.6 to 23.1).
About Whittier Elementary School
Federal records list Whittier Elementary School as an elementary school in Indianola, Iowa. Students in pre-K through 5 make up the school's enrollment of 369 students.
Indianola Comm School District runs Whittier Elementary School along with 5 other schools, enrolling 3,599 students in total.
White students account for 86% of the school's enrollment. The rest of enrollment is 8% Hispanic and 6% multiracial. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 26%.
On staff are 23.1 full-time-equivalent teachers; the student-to-teacher ratio is 16.0:1. The average for elementary schools in Iowa is 13.7:1, so this school has more students per teacher. About 31% of students at Whittier Elementary School are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
Whittier Elementary School holds a C allk12 Grade, placing it above 28% of Iowa public elementary schools.
Whittier Elementary School is 5.9 points below its predicted average proficiency rate across its state test results (70.4% versus 76.4%), which places it in neither the top nor the bottom 10% in Iowa.
The county, Warren County, is where the school is located. The median household earns about $94,588 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 33%, and roughly 3% of residents are in poverty. Warren County has 20 public schools with about 10,473 students, including Whittier Elementary School.
Irving Elementary School is about 0.6 miles away, making it the nearest public school. Within five miles of Whittier Elementary School, there are 5 other public schools. Whittier Elementary School is 8th of 9 nearby schools by average proficiency rate.
The federal government classifies Whittier Elementary School's location as Town: Fringe.
The school shrank from 402 students in 2020-21 to 369 in 2024-25. The student-to-teacher ratio dropped from 18.3:1 in 2020-21 to 16.0:1 in 2024-25.
The allk12 page for Whittier Elementary School lets the school community talk about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures. You can also rate the school on this page.
Warren County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
54,409
Census ACS
Median income
$94,588
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
33%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
3%
Below federal line
Schools in county
20
10,473 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Indianola Comm School District
- Indianola High SchoolHigh · 1,165 students
- Indianola Middle SchoolMiddle · 818 students
- Wilder Elementary SchoolElementary · 456 students
- Emerson Elementary SchoolElementary · 396 students
- Irving Elementary SchoolElementary · 395 students
Other schools in Indianola
- Indianola High SchoolHigh · 1,165 students
- Indianola Middle SchoolMiddle · 818 students
- Wilder Elementary SchoolElementary · 456 students
- Emerson Elementary SchoolElementary · 396 students
- Irving Elementary SchoolElementary · 395 students
Other Whittier Elementary schools
34 other US public schools in 17 states are named Whittier Elementary. Whittier Elementary School is the 20th largest of the 35.
- Whittier Elementary SchoolClinton, IA · 331 students
- Whittier ElementaryHemet, CA · 816 students
- Whittier ElementaryFrederick, MD · 779 students
- WHITTIER ELEMENTARYKANSAS CITY, MO · 550 students
- Whittier ElementaryLong Beach, CA · 526 students
Nearby schools
- Irving Elementary School0.6 mi · 395
- Wilder Elementary School0.7 mi · 456
- Emerson Elementary School1.6 mi · 396
- Indianola High School1.8 mi · 1,165
- Indianola Middle School1.9 mi · 818
- Martensdale Elementary School8.4 mi · 307
Frequently asked questions
About Whittier Elementary SchoolHow large is Whittier Elementary School?
Whittier Elementary School enrolls approximately 369 students in grades PK-05.
What age range does Whittier Elementary School serve?
Whittier Elementary School serves students from grade PK through grade 05.
How many teachers does Whittier Elementary School have?
Whittier Elementary School employs 23 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 16.0:1.
What is the student diversity at Whittier Elementary School?
Student demographics at Whittier Elementary School are roughly 86% White, 8% Hispanic, 1% Black, 0% Asian, 6% Two or more.
What district is Whittier Elementary School in?
Whittier Elementary School is part of Indianola Comm School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.