The top reported proficiency rate is 59% in Math. The lowest is 57% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Maquoketa Middle School
Maquoketa Middle School sits in the small Jackson County seat of Maquoketa, a micro-urban community that functions as the main business hub between Dubuque and the Quad Cities. The town has undergone recent investment to revitalize its downtown and expand its business base, and it markets itself as a fiber-connected city with a competitive cost of living. The middle school draws from that community base, serving grades six through eight as a regular public school within the Maquoketa Comm School District.
The school enrolls a student body that is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, Hispanic, and multiracial students. Just over half of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that places the school in a mixed-income context. Data on special education classification and English learner status were not available in the source materials, so a parent who wants a full picture of the school’s pull-out services or language supports would need to check with the school directly. The enrollment is modest for a middle school combining three grade levels, with the largest class in seventh grade and the smallest in sixth.
On the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, the school posted proficiency rates that fall below the midpoint relative to the other districts in Jackson County. In math, just under three-fifths of students scored proficient or above, and in English language arts the rate was similar. Science, tested only in a subset of grades within this span, came in around the same level. These figures represent a baseline year in the data set, with only a single year of results reported, so there is no trend line yet to say whether performance is moving up or down. A parent looking at these numbers may want to ask the school about its instructional strategies and how it supports students who are not yet at the proficient bar.
The school had near-universal participation on test day, which gives confidence that the results reflect the full student population rather than a selected group.
Because Maquoketa Middle School does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and chronic absenteeism data were also absent from the source material. The comparison set places the school’s overall proficiency index below the midpoint among the four districts in Jackson County, meaning a parent considering options across the county will find some neighboring schools with stronger academic outcomes on these particular assessments.
The district brief turned up little in the way of recent structural changes or strategic initiatives that would affect a middle school family’s daily experience. No bond measures, boundary shifts, or program additions were flagged in the publicly available research, though that does not rule out internal changes at the building level. A parent should expect the school to be operating in a stable district environment with no visible disruption in recent years.
The housing market in Maquoketa’s ZIP code shows home values modestly below the national median, with year-over-year appreciation running ahead of the national rate but in line with the broader state trend. For a family moving to the area, the cost of entry is lower than the national average, and the town’s emphasis on its fiber network and revitalized downtown suggests an effort to attract new residents, though concrete figures on population growth were not part of the source material.
Maquoketa Middle School fits a family looking for a mid-sized, community-based middle school in a small city that serves as a regional hub. The academic proficiency levels are below the county midpoint, and a parent who places a high priority on test scores will want to investigate what academic supports the school offers and how the middle school experience compares with nearby options. The school’s role as the middle-grade feeder in a single-district town means the peer environment is the community’s own children, for better or for worse, without the sorting effects of a larger district with multiple middle school choices.
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