The top reported proficiency rate is 68% in English language arts. The lowest is 59% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Feelhaver Elementary School
Feelhaver Elementary School serves first through fifth grade as part of the Fort Dodge Community School District in north-central Iowa. The school sits within Fort Dodge, a city that historically anchored itself in gypsum mining, drywall manufacturing, and veterinary pharmaceuticals, with major employers including Elanco, National Gypsum, Cargill, and UnityPoint Hospital. The downtown area, modeled after Chicago architecture in the mid-1900s, earned the local nickname “Little Chicago,” though the city’s population has been slowly declining. The community is largely car-dependent, with a traditional downtown core and a weekday bus system connecting commercial, medical, and educational locations. Industrial investment continues, including a Cargill corn syrup refinery announced in recent years, while the city’s “Envision 2030” planning initiative and the Fort Dodge Main Street organization support downtown revitalization.
Feelhaver is a regular public school, neither a charter nor a magnet, and state testing data is available for the 2024-25 school year from the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress. In math, a clear majority of students met or exceeded proficiency standards, while in English language arts the share was higher, with roughly two-thirds of students reaching that mark. Science results, based on a single tested grade level, also showed a majority of students scoring proficient. When compared with other schools in Webster County, the school’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades sits above the midpoint of the county’s districts. No multi-year trend data is available because only one year of results is present in the record, so a parent cannot yet see whether scores are improving or declining.
The enrollment is a mid-sized elementary for this grade band. The student body is predominantly white, with a modest share of Hispanic students, a smaller share of Black students, and a small number of Asian and American Indian students. More than a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that a substantial portion of families have lower household incomes. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported here.
No information was available on staffing ratios, chronic absenteeism, or discipline rates, so a parent evaluating the school’s environment or support structures would need to ask the school directly for those details. The school’s district, Fort Dodge Community School District, recently opened a new Early Childhood Center in fall 2021, consolidating all preschool, transitional kindergarten, and kindergarten into a single facility. That means Feelhaver begins its instructional program with first grade, and families with younger children will enter through that separate early learning center before their child reaches Feelhaver.
Housing values in the area are well below both state and national benchmarks, and rents are also low relative to national averages, making this a more affordable market for homebuyers and renters alike. A family moving to Fort Dodge for work in the industrial, healthcare, or education sectors would find a school with solid proficiency results that sit above the county midpoint, serving a student body with a mix of economic backgrounds. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to consider. A parent may want to ask the school about class sizes, special education services, and any enrichment offerings, as those details were not available in the data provided.
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