The top reported proficiency rate is 65% in Math. The lowest is 29% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Moulton-udell High School
Moulton-Udell High School serves students in seventh through twelfth grade from the Moulton-Udell Community School District, a small rural district in Appanoose County, Iowa. The town of Moulton is a very small community, with a population that has held relatively steady in recent decades after a longer-term decline from an earlier peak. The area is primarily residential with limited local commercial activity, and nearby Centerville offers Iowa’s largest historic town square. The town provides basic services including water, sewer, garbage collection, fiber optics, a city park, and ball fields. No major new housing developments were reported in available sources.
The school itself is very small, with an enrollment that reflects the community it serves. Student demographics are overwhelmingly white, with small numbers of students identifying as two or more races or American Indian or Alaska Native. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that a significant portion of families are dealing with lower household income. This is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet.
State testing results are available for math, English language arts, and science, and they present a mixed picture. On the math assessment, roughly half of students scored at a proficient level or above. In English language arts, that share was lower, and in science it was lower still. The overall proficiency index across tested subjects and grades places the school in the bottom quartile relative to the other districts in Appanoose County. The comparison set is small, with only three districts in the county, so the range is narrow. Still, the data shows that proficiency is below the county median. Participation rates on the state assessments were high, so the results represent nearly all enrolled students. Only a single year of data is available for these tests, so there is no information yet on whether performance is trending up or down.
Because the school serves students in seventh through twelfth grade but does not report a graduation rate, a parent may want to ask the school or district directly about how many students finish high school and on what timeline. That information was not available in the data reviewed.
The school does not appear in the available sources as offering a wide array of specialized programs, advanced coursework, or career and technical education pathways. Given the small size, course offerings are likely limited by the number of students and staff. A parent looking for a broad range of electives, Advanced Placement classes, or dual-enrollment college credits may want to ask about what is available and whether students have options to take courses at nearby colleges or through online providers.
The Moulton-Udell Community School District appears to be very small, with only two schools. The research did not find evidence of recent referendums, curriculum changes, property tax shifts, or other parent-relevant developments. The district has not been in the news for any major changes, so the broad outlines of what a family experiences today are probably similar to what they would have found a few years ago.
For a family considering this school, the most relevant factors are its size, the modest academic proficiency numbers, and the rural, low-cost setting. The town of Moulton offers quiet, small-town life with limited commercial activity, and housing values are well below national benchmarks. The student population is homogeneous, and a majority of families qualify for income-based meal assistance. The school is a central institution in a community that values its local identity, as reflected in the town’s “Home to the Eagles” reference. A family moving here would likely value a close-knit environment and small classes over a wide array of academic options or high overall test scores. Those looking for a school with stronger assessment results or more program variety may want to look into options in larger nearby towns or districts.
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