The top reported proficiency rate is 91% in Math. The lowest is 84% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Parkersburg Elementary School
Parkersburg Elementary School serves children from prekindergarten through second grade in the Aplington-Parkersburg Community School District. The school is located in the small, mainly residential town of Parkersburg, Iowa, the most populous city in Butler County. The community is compact, built around a traditional Main Street grid, and the school is integrated into that small-town fabric rather than sitting on a distant campus. The town rebuilt extensively after an EF5 tornado destroyed much of the south side in 2008, and it is publicly described as a model of disaster recovery.
Because the school serves only the earliest grades, state testing data is available only from a single school year and covers only the small number of students old enough to test. In that available snapshot, math proficiency was strong. Reading proficiency was also solid. The school’s overall proficiency index, combining the subjects, placed it in the top tier relative to the other three districts in Butler County. Keep in mind that this result rests on a single year of data from several years ago, and the tested population is tiny. A parent may want to ask the school for more recent classroom-level information.
The enrollment of about that size for a pre-K through second grade building is predominantly white, with a small share of students identifying as two or more races, a very small number of Hispanic students, and a trace of Black students. More than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, which is a meaningful share and indicates a moderate level of economic need among families. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not reported.
The school is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet school. It does not appear to operate under a Title I designation. The parent district, Aplington-Parkersburg, formed from a merger of the Aplington and Parkersburg districts in the early 1990s. No recent district-level changes—such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or boundary adjustments—were found in publicly available sources.
Housing in the school’s zip code is valued slightly above the Iowa statewide benchmark and well below the national average. Monthly mortgage costs for a median-priced home are manageable relative to the national median household income. This combination suggests a relatively affordable housing market for families moving into the area. The town’s population shows a slight recent decline, but the community retains a network of parks, a swimming pool, two golf courses, and a wildlife management area nearby.
For a family considering this school, the main takeaway is that it is an early-elementary building serving children through second grade. Academic pathways beyond that grade level are determined by the district’s other schools. The testing data, while dated and thin, pointed to strong foundational proficiency in the grades that were tested. The school is small, the community is tight-knit, and the town has shown resilience in rebuilding. A parent should expect to transition their child to another district school starting in third grade. Because the available academic data is limited and not recent, a conversation with school leadership about current classroom performance and curriculum is advisable.
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