The top reported proficiency rate is 81% in Math. The lowest is 71% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Orchard Hill Elementary School
Orchard Hill Elementary School serves students from preschool through sixth grade in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and is part of the Cedar Falls Community School District. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and enrolls a student body that is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Asian, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Black, and multiracial students. About a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, suggesting a moderate level of economic diversity within the building. The school is on the larger side for an elementary serving these grades, with a total enrollment that fills the building across all grades from kindergarten through sixth. Preschool adds a modest number of younger students to the mix.
On the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, Orchard Hill’s students posted strong proficiency rates in both English language arts and math, with roughly eight in ten students meeting or exceeding the state’s proficiency standard. Science proficiency, tested only in certain grades, was somewhat lower, with just over seven in ten students reaching that bar. This is a single year of data, so no trend is available to see whether performance is moving upward or holding steady. Compared to other schools in the county that report results, Orchard Hill’s overall proficiency across subjects lands in the bottom quartile of the comparison group. That is not a weak showing in absolute terms—the school’s rate is close to the county median—but it places Orchard Hill behind several other elementary schools in Black Hawk County. A parent may want to ask the school how it supports students who are not yet at the proficient level, especially in science, and whether curriculum or intervention strategies are being adjusted.
The school offers no high school coursework, so there is no graduation rate, no AP or dual-credit pathways, and no career and technical education programs to report. For an elementary building, that is expected. The state’s testing program covers grades three through six, and the school’s participation rate on those exams was very high, meaning the results are a reliable picture of student performance. Discipline data, staffing ratios, chronic absenteeism, and the number of students receiving special education services or English learner support were not available in the data provided. Those are meaningful gaps for any family trying to understand the full learning environment, particularly around how students with different needs are served and how the school handles behavior. A parent should ask the school directly about class sizes, special education staffing, and how the school supports students who are learning English.
The housing context in the area includes home values that are above the state average but below the national average, and rents that are modest relative to incomes. The median household income nationally and the local affordability picture suggest that Cedar Falls is a relatively stable market for families, though the cost of buying has risen in recent years. The school sits within a district that, according to publicly available information, has not recently undertaken major curriculum shifts, boundary changes, or facility referendums that would be widely noticed by parents. No large-scale changes were reported in the district’s recent activities.
For a family deciding on Orchard Hill, the academic picture is one of solid but not top-tier performance relative to nearby schools. The building is large, economically moderate, and sits in a community where housing is priced above the state norm but still within reach for many. The missing civil rights data and student support information are real unknowns. If in-class support for struggling students or the school’s approach to discipline matters to a family, those answers will have to come from a conversation with the school itself.
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