The top reported proficiency rate is 85% in Math. The lowest is 71% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Hudson Elementary School
Hudson Elementary School serves students in preschool through sixth grade in the town of Hudson, a small but steadily growing community within the Waterloo-Cedar Falls metropolitan area. The school is part of the Hudson Comm School District, and its building sits on Washington Street close to other district schools and civic facilities, in a setting that feels more like a small-town campus cluster than a dense downtown. The town itself has seen population growth in recent years, with new development underway along the northern and southern edges, and it remains a car-oriented place with highways as a defining feature of the local streetscape.
The student body at Hudson Elementary is predominantly white, with a small share of Hispanic students and even smaller shares of students who are Asian, Black, or of two or more races. About a fifth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that is on the lower end for a public school. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the reports used for this profile, so a family wanting to understand the school's special education or language support programs would need to follow up directly with the school.
On state assessments, Hudson Elementary students performed at notably high levels. In math, a very large majority of students scored proficient or above, and in English language arts the share was similarly high. Science results, which are tested in fewer grades, also showed strong performance with a large majority of students meeting the proficiency bar. Participation rates on all three tests were extremely high, which gives confidence that the results reflect the full student population. These results place the school’s overall proficiency index below the midpoint among the districts in Black Hawk County, but that comparison comes from a small cohort of districts where the top performers are clustered closely together; the school’s actual proficiency rates are still strong in absolute terms.
The school serves a relatively narrow grade band, from prekindergarten through sixth grade, so it has no high school graduation rate to report. Students move on to Hudson Middle School and then Hudson High School within the same district. The elementary school is a regular public school with no charter or magnet status, and it does not appear to operate under a Title I schoolwide program.
The district brief for Hudson Comm School District did not turn up any recent major changes related to referendums, curriculum overhauls, or property tax shifts that would meet a four-year lasting-impact bar. That means the district has not made any headline-level shifts a family might need to track, but it also means the information available publicly about the district’s strategic direction is thin.
Hudson’s housing market has seen appreciation, with home values rising alongside the town’s population growth. The median home value in the area sits above the Iowa state benchmark, though below the national figure. The typical estimated monthly mortgage cost is moderate relative to the national median household income, and the estimated rent burden is also reasonable. The town’s economy does not appear to have a single dominant employer; the school district and city government are local anchors, and many residents likely commute to Waterloo or Cedar Falls for work. The town offers parks, a golf course, ball diamonds, and connections to bike trails, but no public transit system was mentioned in the search results. A family considering Hudson Elementary should expect a small-town environment with strong academic performance on state tests, a demographically homogeneous student body, and a community that has been growing and adding new housing. The school’s grade band ends at sixth grade, so the district’s middle and high school options will be the next consideration for families planning ahead.
See more original research from School Decision →