The top reported proficiency rate is 84% in English language arts. The lowest is 75% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Lakeview Elementary
Lakeview Elementary serves prekindergarten through third grade in Solon, a rapidly growing bedroom community near Iowa City and Cedar Rapids that has seen a wave of new residential construction on its outskirts. The school is one of four buildings in the Solon Comm School District, a small system that is feeling the pressure of its own popularity. The district’s elementary level is over capacity and enrollment is projected to keep rising, after a bond referendum that would have funded a new elementary school failed by a narrow margin. That unresolved facility crunch is a practical consideration for any parent looking at this school.
The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a very small share of Hispanic students and even fewer students of other racial backgrounds. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is low, a measure that aligns with the town’s character as an affluent residential enclave with high homeownership and median income well above the national figure. For a family in the market for a home in Solon, the housing values reflect that prosperity, and the town’s proximity to Lake MacBride State Park and the Coralville Reservoir adds a recreational dimension to the community’s profile.
In terms of academic performance, Lakeview’s state assessment results come from the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress, and the school tests only third graders under the grade band covered by the state. Math proficiency sits above the midpoint among districts in Johnson County, while English language arts proficiency is stronger still, with a very high share of students meeting the state’s proficient or above threshold. Participation on test day was nearly universal, so the results reflect the full student group. Because only one year of testing data is available here, it is not possible to see a trend, but the single snapshot shows a school where the large majority of students are performing at the expected level in both subjects. A parent may want to look into whether the school’s approach in the primary grades is what they are looking for, and how students perform once they move to the upper elementary building in the district.
Because the school serves only through third grade, there is no graduation rate to report here—that measure applies to the district’s high school. Likewise, data on student discipline, staffing ratios, chronic absenteeism, and special education or English learner populations were not available from the sources used, so it is not possible to speak to those dimensions of the school environment. The school is a regular public school, not a charter, and its Title I status is not listed, which given the low share of students receiving free or reduced-price meals would be consistent with a non-Title I building.
The district itself is still working through what to do about its growing elementary enrollment, and that is the most concrete factor a family moving to Solon would need to weigh. Lakeview itself, on the evidence available, is a school where a high level of academic readiness is the norm by third grade, in a community that has been adding families faster than the district can add classroom space.
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