Enrollment
396
Middle
DISTRICT 470 · STATE 400
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·SAYDEL COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 192532001448
Woodside Middle School
5810 NE 14th St, Des Moines, IA 50313 · (515) 265-3451 · Polk County
GRADES 05–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL396 STUDENTS
C-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 16% of Iowa public middle schools
- C-Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- CBeats 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
14.4:1
28 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.1:1 · STATE 15.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
57%
224 students
DISTRICT 42% · STATE 41%
Community
0
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 | 90 | 23% |
| Grade 6 | 97 | 24% |
| Grade 7 | 120 | 30% |
| Grade 8 | 89 | 22% |
Student demographics
51%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 48% · 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
Woodside Middle School→Saydel High School
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Saydel Comm School District. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
72.7%
IA avg 73.6% . +7.0pp since 2023
Math
63.3%
IA avg 70.9% . +3.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 73 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 63 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 7 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 3 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 72.7% | 63.3% |
| 2023-24 | 65.7% | 60.0% |
% 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
62.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
63.6%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-0.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 63% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 64% 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 Woodside Middle School
Woodside Middle School's state test result (62.9% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodside Middle School this school | 396 | 56.6% | 62.9% |
| Estherville Lincoln Central Middle School Estherville | 308 | 55.8% | 67.0% |
| Lincoln Intermediate Mason City | 485 | 53.2% | 65.6% |
| Fort Dodge Middle School Fort Dodge | 765 | 55.3% | 61.1% |
| Susan Clark Junior High Muscatine | 544 | 49.4% | 69.3% |
| Woodrow Wilson Middle School Council Bluffs | 855 | 58.9% | 58.1% |
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 Woodside Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 62.9% | #186 of 224 | #12 of 21 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 63.3% | #184 of 224 ▲ 5 | #12 of 21 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 72.7% | #163 of 224 ▲ 26 | #12 of 21 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 396 | #105 of 246 | #21 of 21 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.4:1 | #99 of 180 | #8 of 21 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 50.6% | #57 of 180 | #15 of 21 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 56.6% | #40 of 237 | #10 of 21 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +1.0% | #57 of 61 | #5 of 6 |
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
396
+13 (+3%) vs 2020
+53% since 1990-91, when it was 259
Student : Teacher
14.4:1
was 12.0:1
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 | 396 | 27.6 | 14.4:1 | 57% (224) |
| 2023-24 | 376 | 27.1 | 13.9:1 | 60% (227) |
| 2022-23 | 359 | 35.9 | 10.0:1 | 71% (255) |
| 2020-21 | 383 | 32 | 12.0:1 | 68% (260) |
| 2017-18 | 392 | 29.1 | 13.5:1 | 54% (212) |
| 2015-16 | 393 | 31 | 12.7:1 | 49% (193) |
| 2010-11 | 325 | 29 | 11.2:1 | 49% (160) |
| 2000-01 | 471 | 39 | 12.1:1 | 43% (204) |
| 1990-91 | 259 | 22 | 11.8:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Woodside Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students up 1% (392 to 396); teachers down 5% (29.1 to 27.6).
About Woodside Middle School
Woodside Middle School is a mid-sized middle-grades school in Des Moines, Iowa, under Saydel Comm School District. The school has 396 students in 2024-25 across grades 5 through 8.
Saydel Comm School District runs Woodside Middle School along with 2 other schools, enrolling 1,409 students in total.
The student body at Woodside Middle School is 66% White. Beyond that, enrollment is 21% Hispanic and 11% multiracial. The White share of the county population is higher, at 76%. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 51, compared with 70 nationally.
With 27.6 full-time-equivalent teachers, the student-to-teacher ratio is about 14.4:1. The average for middle schools in Iowa is 15.2:1, so this school has fewer students per teacher. Student poverty is often measured by lunch eligibility; at Woodside Middle School, 57% qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Among Iowa public middle schools, Woodside Middle School outscored 16%, which works out to a C- on the allk12 Grade.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 63.6% for Woodside Middle School. The school posts 62.9%, within a point of the prediction.
Five-year Census Bureau estimates for Polk County show that the median household earns about $83,576 a year, about 40% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 7%. Across Polk County, 137 public schools serve about 77,436 students.
Saydel High School is about 0.4 miles from Woodside Middle School, the shortest distance to any other public school. Counting only straight-line distance, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. By average proficiency, Woodside Middle School is 3rd among 9 schools close by.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is Suburb: Large: in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Over 4 years, enrollment increased by 13 students, from 383 to 396. Federal data show the ratio rising from 12.0:1 to 14.4:1.
This page collects posts and questions about Woodside Middle School, such as open houses, carpools, and field trips. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Polk County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
503,175
Census ACS
Median income
$83,576
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
40%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
137
77,436 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Saydel Comm School District
- Cornell Elementary SchoolElementary · 555 students
- Saydel High SchoolHigh · 458 students
Other schools in Des Moines
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,364 students
- Roosevelt High SchoolHigh · 2,051 students
- East High SchoolHigh · 1,952 students
- North High SchoolHigh · 1,428 students
- Hoover High SchoolHigh · 898 students
- Weeks Middle SchoolMiddle · 688 students
Other Woodside Middle schools
One other US public school is named Woodside Middle. Woodside Middle School is the 2nd largest of the 2.
- Woodside Middle SchoolFort Wayne, IN · 1,032 students
Nearby schools
- Saydel High School0.4 mi · 458
- Cornell Elementary School0.6 mi · 555
- Madison Elementary School2.3 mi · 285
- Oak Park2.6 mi · 288
- Great Oaks High School and Career Center2.7 mi · 72
- Harding Middle School2.8 mi · 603
Frequently asked questions
About Woodside Middle SchoolHow large is Woodside Middle School?
Woodside Middle School enrolls approximately 396 students in grades 05-08.
What age range does Woodside Middle School serve?
Woodside Middle School serves students from grade 05 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Woodside Middle School?
Approximately 14.4:1 students per teacher at Woodside Middle School.
How diverse is Woodside Middle School?
Woodside Middle School reports a student body of 66% White, 21% Hispanic, 2% Black, 1% Asian, 11% Two or more.
Who oversees Woodside Middle School?
Woodside Middle School is overseen by Saydel Comm School District in Polk County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.