The top reported proficiency rate is 86% in English language arts. The lowest is 73% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Excelsior Middle School
Excelsior Middle School serves seventh and eighth graders in the Linn-Mar Community School District, a regular public school in Marion, Iowa. The school draws from a suburban corridor that includes parts of Cedar Rapids and the smaller community of Robins, an area that has seen new housing growth and a district-wide reorganization of grade levels in recent years. Because Excelsior only covers two middle-school grades, there is no graduation rate to report; students move on to high school elsewhere in the district.
Academically, Excelsior delivers strong results. On the state’s ISASP assessments, proficiency rates in English language arts and math are well above the midpoint among districts in Linn County, and overall the school’s combined proficiency index sits above the county median. Reading and writing scores are particularly high, while math draws similar strength. Science proficiency, though lower than the other two subjects, still lands in a solid range. The school tested nearly all enrolled students, an indicator that administrators pushed for broad participation. With only one year of testing data available, no trend line exists yet; the picture is a snapshot of a single cohort.
The student body of around six hundred children is predominantly white, with smaller shares of students who are Black, Hispanic, Asian, or multiracial. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a moderate share that places Excelsior in a middle ground for economic diversity relative to many Iowa schools. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not reported in the available records, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about support services for those populations.
The housing market in the area surrounding Excelsior reflects a mix of suburban stability and recent expansion. Home values in the zip code are above the Iowa average but below the national median, and rents have risen over the past year. For a family considering a move, the district’s property-tax rate and approved budget are factors publicly reported by Linn-Mar; the district also offers junior kindergarten and preschool, a lasting curricular addition that complements the K-12 pathway.
The school itself is a straightforward secondary building with no magnet or charter designation. Classrooms and schedules are organized around the two-year middle school model. A notable structural change occurred a few years ago when the district opened two new intermediate schools serving grades five and six, meaning students now arrive at Excelsior after a dedicated intermediate program rather than an elementary-through-middle configuration. Families moving into the district should be aware that the feeder pattern funnels children from neighborhood elementary schools into those intermediate buildings before reaching Excelsior.
No information on disciplinary rates, staffing ratios, course access, or chronic absenteeism was available for this profile. That gap does not necessarily indicate a problem—many of those fields are simply not yet collected or reported at the school level—but a parent looking for a fuller picture of school climate may wish to follow up with the principal or the district office.
Overall, Excelsior Middle School delivers above-average academic performance in a suburban setting with modest economic diversity. It is a regular public school serving only seventh and eighth graders within a district that has invested in early childhood programming and reorganized its intermediate grades. The combination of strong testing results, a manageable size, and a community that sits below national housing costs but above the state’s typical home values makes this a reasonable fit for families who want solid core instruction without the breadth of offerings found in larger or more specialized schools. Because the data is thin in several areas, a parent should treat this as a starting point and seek direct answers on student support, enrichment, and school culture before deciding.
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