The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in English language arts. The lowest is 50% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Moore Elementary School
MooreElementary School serves students from kindergarten through fifth grade in Des Moines, one of the larger elementary buildings in the city. It is a regular public school within the Des Moines Independent Community School District, situated in a residential part of Iowa’s capital. For a family looking at elementary options in Polk County, this school offers a data picture that is largely defined by a single year of state assessment results, with no multi-year trend yet available to show direction.
On the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, proficiency rates across tested subjects sit below the midpoint among Polk County districts. English language arts shows a stronger share of students meeting the proficiency benchmark, while math and science proficiency rates are lower. The school had very high participation in testing, above ninety-six percent in all subjects, which means the results reflect nearly the entire tested student body and are not skewed by selective opt-outs. Parents examining these numbers may want to ask the school about the instructional approaches used in math and science, where the gap relative to ELA is most apparent.
The student body is diverse in composition. White students make up roughly a third of enrollment, with Black, Hispanic, Asian, and multiracial students each represented in meaningful shares. The school serves a population where a substantial portion of families qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a marker of economic diversity that many schools in the Des Moines district share. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available; a parent seeking those details would need to contact the school directly.
Housing in the area around the school carries a value near the statewide typical home price, and rents have been rising more quickly than the national average over the past year, consistent with the Des Moines metro’s trend of steady growth. The city itself is Iowa’s capital and largest urban center, with a strong base of insurance and financial services employers, a growing downtown civic core, and extensive park and trail infrastructure. Families moving to the area for jobs at firms like Principal Financial Group, Wells Fargo, or the many data centers that have located in the metro will find Moore Elementary in a middle-ring residential neighborhood.
Because the school does not serve grades beyond fifth grade, there is no graduation rate to report, and no data on chronic absenteeism or discipline incidents was available for this profile. The school’s grade range means that families evaluating a full K-12 pathway will need to look at the middle and high schools their children would feed into within the Des Moines district. No specialized program offerings such as magnet or gifted tracks were listed, and the school is not a charter or magnet school.
Moore Elementary offers a straightforward elementary education in a diverse, urban school setting. Its assessment results suggest room for improvement in mathematics and science relative to peer districts in the county, and its ELA performance, while stronger, still sits below the typical countywide level. The school’s high participation rate and the district’s broader resources in Des Moines provide a foundation a family could build on by talking directly with the school about academic supports and enrichment opportunities.
See more original research from School Decision →