Mount Vernon Middle School, Mount Vernon IA

Original Research by School Decision on Mount Vernon Middle School

Mount Vernon Middle School serves grades five through eight in the Mount Vernon Community School District, set in a small college town in eastern Iowa. The school sits with the district’s elementary and high school on a single campus away from the town center, a deliberate separation from the historic Uptown commercial district and the Cornell College campus that crown the ridge line. This is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and it serves a student body that is predominantly white. A moderate share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.

On the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, the school posted results that place its overall proficiency in the top quartile among districts in Linn County. A strong majority of students met or exceeded the state’s proficiency standards in math, English language arts, and science. Participation rates on the tests were nearly universal, so the results reflect nearly the full student body. Achievement data across multiple years is limited to a single point, which means there is no reported trend line to show whether performance has been stable, improving, or declining.

The school’s enrollment is moderate and evenly distributed across the four middle grades. Because the school stops at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report; that measure applies only to the high school level. Data on special education classification and English learner status is not available in the source material, so a parent interested in those supports may want to ask the school directly.

Mount Vernon itself is an affluent small town that blends a historic residential core, National Register districts, and the presence of Cornell College. The median household income is elevated, and home values are well above the state average, reflecting a community that is largely owner-occupied with tight housing supply. The town sits at the intersection of U.S. Route 30 and Iowa Highway 1, part of the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, and many residents commute to Cedar Rapids or Iowa City for work. The school campus is a short drive from the Uptown area. Community life is anchored by a series of annual events, a well-connected parks and trails system, and a community wellness center adjacent to the school grounds.

For a family considering this school, the academic picture is one of consistently strong performance on state assessments, paired with a student body that reflects the broader community’s demographics. The school does not appear to serve a markedly diverse population, and the limited available data on specialized programs and support services means a parent with a child who has an individualized education plan or is learning English should seek further information from the school directly. The setting is a stable, relatively prosperous small town with a college presence, and the middle school is one component of a single, unified district campus that also houses the elementary and high school. This arrangement means students move through the system within the same physical footprint, which some families find cohesive and others find insular; that is a matter of preference rather than a judgment.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grades 3-890%

School 90% · District 88% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 14 pts above state median · ▲ 16 pts above county median

English language arts

Grades 3-892%

School 92% · District 89% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 17 pts above state median · ▲ 17 pts above county median

Science

Grades 3-890%

School 90% · District 90%

▲ 22 pts above state median · ▲ 30 pts above county median

This schoolMount Vernon Comm School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income78%Higher-income94%16 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income81%Higher-income93%12 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income82%Higher-income92%9 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income77%Higher-income97%20 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income80%Higher-income94%14 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income72%Higher-income87%15 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income86%Higher-income93%7 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income71%Higher-income93%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income69%Higher-income98%29 pp gap

Grades 3-8Lower-income75%Higher-income93%17 pp gap