The top reported proficiency rate is 73% in English language arts. The lowest is 56% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Clark Elementary School
Clark Elementary School serves children from preschool through fifth grade in Le Mars, a city that anchors Plymouth County as its county seat and sits within the Sioux City metropolitan area. The town is defined by its dominant employer, Wells Enterprises, the maker of Blue Bunny ice cream, and bills itself as the Ice Cream Capital of the World. Le Mars has a traditional downtown core with the Plymouth County Courthouse, the Wells Visitor Center and Ice Cream Parlor, and other civic landmarks. The community sees some tourist traffic drawn to the ice cream parlor, one of Iowa’s largest attractions, but the economic base is industrial and commercial, centered on manufacturing and county government. The city covers a modest geographic area with a grid layout typical of a Midwestern county seat. Limited information was available about new housing developments or growth projections, suggesting a stable rather than rapidly expanding market. Housing values in the area sit above the statewide benchmark, and the national price-to-income ratio indicates that home ownership requires a typical level of financial commitment for a small-city market.
Clark Elementary itself is a regular public school within the Le Mars Community School District, and it is the only elementary building in the district, based on publicly reported information. Enrollment is moderate for a PK-5 building, with a balanced distribution across grades. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves a population with significant economic need. The student body is predominantly white, with a notable Hispanic enrollment, smaller Black and multiracial groups, and trace numbers from other backgrounds. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in the records we examined, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those supports.
Clark’s state assessment results draw on the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, and the school participates at a very high rate, which means the reported proficiency picture reflects nearly all enrolled students in tested grades. In English language arts, a large majority of students met proficiency standards. In math, a substantial majority did as well. In science, which is tested in fewer grades, roughly half of students scored proficient. The school’s overall proficiency index, which averages results across subjects, places it in the bottom quartile among the five districts in Plymouth County. That comparison set is small, so a position at the lower end of that group does not signal a crisis but does indicate that Clark’s academic results trail those of its county neighbors. Because this is a single-year snapshot and the district does not appear to have recent multi-year trend data in the available records, it is not possible to say whether these results reflect a stable pattern or a shift. A parent may want to ask the school for trend information or for details about how the school supports students who are not yet at the proficient level.
The school offers no data on chronic absenteeism or on graduation rates, which is expected because it serves only elementary grades. Discipline data and information about course access or staffing ratios were also absent from the records we examined, though those are not typically searchable for an elementary school at this level of detail. The district brief turned up no recent parent-relevant changes, such as boundary adjustments, program launches, or leadership turnover that could be reported on with confidence.
For a family considering Clark Elementary, the picture is that of a neighborhood school in a town with a single employer and a stable, small-city setting. The school’s strengths lie in high participation on state tests and proficiency rates that, while below the county median, still show a solid majority of students meeting benchmarks in reading and math. The science results are softer, and any family whose child needs targeted intervention in that area would want to understand what the school offers. The economic profile of the student body suggests a school accustomed to working with families facing financial pressures, which often correlates with additional federal or state supports. If the district provides preschool, that is a significant asset. The school’s size is manageable, its grade span is standard, and its community context is clear. A family looking for a small-city elementary school in northwest Iowa with a known industrial employer and a stable housing market will find Clark to be a straightforward option, though they should press for details on special education and English learner services, since those numbers were not in the public record.
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