The top reported proficiency rate is 76% in Math. The lowest is 56% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Hawthorne Elementary School
Hawthorne Elementary School serves the earliest grades in the Keokuk Community School District, from kindergarten through third grade. This is a public elementary school in a small, historic Mississippi River city in Iowa’s southeast corner. The city has experienced long-term population decline and economic transition away from river trade toward factory and distribution work. For a family considering this school, the primary context is that the building serves only primary-age children; after third grade students move to another school in the district. That makes Hawthorne a short-stop school for most families.
The school has a substantial enrollment. The student body is predominantly white, with a meaningful share of two-or-more-race students and smaller numbers of Black and Hispanic students. Asian students are represented at a low level. A large share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic realities of a town where the local economy relies on manufacturing, distribution, and public-sector employment. The housing market is notably affordable compared to state and national benchmarks, with prices well below the Iowa median; a family will find considerably lower costs here than in most Iowa communities. The city is compact, with a traditional downtown and older residential neighborhoods, but no public transit system was identified. Families will almost certainly need a car.
On state testing, which Iowa administers through the ISASP, Hawthorne’s third graders take assessments in math and English language arts. The data shows math proficiency at a rate that meaningfully exceeds the midpoint for the district, while ELA proficiency comes in lower. Looking at the overall proficiency index across tested subjects, the school sits below the midpoint relative to other districts in Lee County. Because the school only serves grades K-3, there is no graduation rate to report, no chronic absenteeism data, and no advanced coursework or career program measures these early grades produce.
For parents, the academic picture is one where math performance among third graders is stronger than reading performance in the same cohort. The participation rate on testing was high. There is no published data in the payload about special education identification rates or English learner enrollment. A parent wanting to understand the full support structure for all learners may wish to ask the school directly about those categories. No information about teacher experience, class size, or staffing was available in the source data, which is another area a family visiting the school would want to explore.
The district brief turned up no recent program changes, bond measures, boundary shifts, or leadership transitions that would be flagged for parents. That does not mean nothing is happening, but publicly reported material on changes of lasting relevance was not found. The city itself is in a period of demographic contraction, and the school’s role is to serve the stable but shrinking population of young children in that community.
Hawthorne is a straightforward early-elementary building in a district serving a small, economically modest river city. The school’s strengths are strongest in math at the one tested grade, and its weakness is in reading at that same grade. A parent considering Keokuk should be aware that after third grade their child will transition to another elementary or intermediate building in the district. For a family that values an affordable housing market, a compact Midwestern town, and a school where their child will be among a large cohort of peers in a building dedicated to the early primary years, Hawthorne fits that description. For a family concerned about reading proficiency at the elementary level, the reported ELA result is one to discuss with the school to understand how instruction and intervention are structured in the early grades.
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