Enrollment
265
Elementary
DISTRICT 347 · STATE 325
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DES MOINES INDEPENDENT COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT·NCES 190897000589
Wright Elementary School
5001 SW 14th St, Des Moines, IA 50315 · (515) 242-8442 · Polk County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL265 STUDENTS
Student : Teacher
12.2:1
22 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.3:1 · STATE 13.7:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
78%
206 students
DISTRICT 76% · STATE 41%
Community
0
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 46 | 17% |
| Grade 1 | 44 | 17% |
| Grade 2 | 47 | 18% |
| Grade 3 | 45 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 42 | 16% |
| Grade 5 | 41 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (46) is 12% larger than its 5th grade class (41).
Student demographics
70%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 74% · 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
Test scores
ISASP 2024-25 . % ProficientEnglish Language Arts
46.6%
IA avg 73.6% . -4.3pp since 2023
Math
42.4%
IA avg 70.9% . -14.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the ISASP, Iowa's statewide test, about 47 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 42 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Iowa schools, those numbers are about 74 and 71. Reading and writing scores are down about 4 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 15 points.
ISASP results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 46.6% | 42.4% |
| 2023-24 | 50.9% | 57.3% |
% 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
48.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
53.1%
based on IA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.6pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 49% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 53% 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 Wright Elementary School
Wright Elementary School's state test result (48.5% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wright Elementary School this school | 265 | 77.7% | 48.5% |
| Phillips Elementary Des Moines | 263 | 79.1% | 46.9% |
| Stowe Elementary School Des Moines | 297 | 84.2% | 33.8% |
| Park Ave Elementary School Des Moines | 380 | 82.6% | 40.9% |
| Riverside Elementary School Sioux City | 227 | 72.7% | 65.1% |
| Franklin Elementary School Marshalltown | 358 | 73.7% | 69.7% |
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 Wright Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Iowa | In Polk County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 48.5% | #510 of 564 | #54 of 78 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 42.4% | #550 of 564 ▼ 62 | #72 of 78 ▼ 18 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 46.6% | #525 of 564 ▼ 34 | #61 of 78 ▼ 11 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 265 | #447 of 705 | #75 of 89 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.2:1 | #141 of 561 | #22 of 86 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 70.5% | #42 of 561 | #19 of 86 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 77.7% | #50 of 666 | #29 of 89 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -5.4% | #278 of 359 | #48 of 64 |
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
265
+9 (+4%) vs 2020
-18% since 1990-91, when it was 322
Student : Teacher
12.2:1
was 13.5:1
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 | 265 | 21.7 | 12.2:1 | 78% (206) |
| 2023-24 | 244 | 22 | 11.1:1 | 67% (164) |
| 2022-23 | 273 | 20.3 | 13.4:1 | 83% (227) |
| 2020-21 | 256 | 19 | 13.5:1 | 80% (205) |
| 2017-18 | 280 | 19.3 | 14.5:1 | 72% (202) |
| 2015-16 | 284 | 20 | 14.2:1 | 73% (207) |
| 2010-11 | 273 | 20 | 13.7:1 | 67% (184) |
| 2000-01 | 295 | 21 | 14.1:1 | 31% (92) |
| 1990-91 | 322 | 18 | 17.9:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Wright Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 5% (280 to 265); teachers up 12% (19.3 to 21.7).
About Wright Elementary School
In Des Moines, Iowa, part of Polk County, Wright Elementary School is an elementary school. The school enrolls 265 students in kindergarten through 5.
Des Moines Independent Comm School District enrolls 29,676 students in 59 schools, including Wright Elementary School.
The largest group at Wright Elementary School is White students, at 40%. Smaller groups are 34% Hispanic, 13% Black, 8% multiracial, and 4% Asian. For comparison, the population of Polk County is roughly 76% White. The diversity index for Wright Elementary School is 70%. For US public schools as a whole it is 70%.
Wright Elementary School lists 21.7 full-time-equivalent teachers; that is about 12.2 students per teacher. The gap from the 13.7:1 average for elementary schools in Iowa is 1.5 students per teacher. About 78% of students at Wright Elementary School are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That is 29 points above the 49% average for public schools in Polk County.
After adjusting for student poverty, Wright Elementary School lands between the top and bottom 10% of Iowa schools. Its average proficiency rate across its state test results is 48.5%; the prediction is 53.1%.
The school is in Polk County, where the median household earns about $83,576 a year, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 40% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 7%. Wright Elementary School shares Polk County with 136 other public schools.
A public school about 1.0 miles away, Mitchell Early Childhood Center, is the closest to Wright Elementary School. In all, at least 8 other public schools sit within five miles of Wright Elementary School. Of 8 schools in the immediate area with test results, Wright Elementary School ranks 3rd on average proficiency.
Locale data from NCES put Wright Elementary School inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000 (City: Mid-size).
Over the 4 years from 2020-21 to 2024-25, enrollment increased 4%. The number of students per teacher dropped from 13.5 to 12.2 over 4 years.
On allk12, people connected to Wright Elementary School can post about athletics, class schedules, and weather closures. 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 Des Moines Independent Comm School District
- 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 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 Wright Elementary schools
10 other US public schools in 9 states are named Wright Elementary. Wright Elementary School is the 9th largest of the 11.
- Wright Elementary SchoolCedar Rapids, IA · 282 students
- WRIGHT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLFORT WALTON BEACH, FL · 609 students
- Wright ElementaryEl Monte, CA · 562 students
- Wright Elementary SchoolMoultrie, GA · 554 students
- Wright Elementary SchoolWEATHERFORD, TX · 528 students
Nearby schools
- Mitchell Early Childhood Center1.0 mi · 292
- Morris Elementary School1.0 mi · 519
- Jefferson Elementary School1.1 mi · 312
- South Union Elementary School1.1 mi · 422
- Park Ave Elementary School1.3 mi · 380
- Brody Middle School1.5 mi · 641
Frequently asked questions
About Wright Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Wright Elementary School?
Wright Elementary School enrolls approximately 265 students in grades KG-05.
Is Wright Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Wright Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many teachers does Wright Elementary School have?
Wright Elementary School employs 22 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.2:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Wright Elementary School?
At Wright Elementary School, the student body is approximately 40% White, 34% Hispanic, 13% Black, 4% Asian, 8% Two or more.
Is Wright Elementary School public or private?
Wright Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Des Moines Independent Comm School District.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.