Original Research by School Decision on Urbandale High School
Urbandale High School serves the full four years of high school in a suburban district that sits within the Des Moines metro area. The community around it is a fast-growing, car-oriented suburb that began as a streetcar suburb and now anchors itself at the intersection of two major interstates. The city has a substantial park and trail network, and its largest employer is a financial services firm, followed by the school district itself. The housing market in the zip code that serves the school shows home values and rents that are above the state benchmark. A typical household in this area would find monthly mortgage costs to be higher than the national rent, though rent itself sits at a modest share of median income. This is a place where a new family moving in should know that the district redrew elementary attendance boundaries in late 2023, effective for the 2024-2025 school year, so younger siblings of high school students might attend a different elementary than their older brothers or sisters did.
The school itself is a regular public high school serving about 1,300 students. That enrollment is spread fairly evenly across the four grade levels, each with a few hundred students. The student body is majority white, with a Hispanic population that is the second-largest racial or ethnic group, and smaller shares of Black, Asian, and multiracial students. More than one in three students qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch. The data does not include counts for students with disabilities or English learners, so a parent who needs information on those supports should ask the school directly.
Academically, the school has recent state assessment results that give a clear picture of where its students stand. In English language arts, a large majority of students tested at the proficient level. In math, more than two out of three did so. In science, about seven in ten did. These are single-year figures with no prior year to compare against, so there is no trend to read. The school has no graduation rate reported in this data, which is a gap. Because it serves grades 9 through 12 and is a regular public school, one would typically expect a graduation rate to be available. Its absence means a parent may want to ask the school or district directly about how many students finish in four years.
The district has been an early adopter of competency-based education, where students advance by demonstrating mastery of skills rather than by accumulating seat time. That is a meaningful shift in how the curriculum is delivered and how report cards, pacing, and promotion work. A family moving in should be aware that this approach is districtwide across all grade levels. The district also recently passed a large bond measure to build a new elementary school, improve security districtwide, and add classroom space at this high school, with construction on those projects running through 2026.
Because this is one school within a larger district, the comparison set that would normally place it among other high schools in Polk County is not available for a few key metrics. The neighbor comparison data notes that proficiency index, graduation rate, and chronic absenteeism could not be positioned relative to other districts because the school-level values were missing. That limits the ability to say whether this school stands above or below its peers in the county. What is available is the recent state test results, which are strong in English language arts and science, and solid in math.
For a family weighing Urbandale High, the picture is one of a suburban school in a growing community with a district that has made deliberate changes to its instructional model and is investing in its physical plant. The academic results are positive on the state assessments that are reported. The missing graduation rate is the softest spot in the data, and it is the single question a parent should prioritize if they are deciding between schools.
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