Linn-Mar - EdTribune IA - Iowa Education Data

136 Iowa Districts Are at Their All-Time High Graduation Rate

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

This is part of the Iowa Graduation Rate series, examining trends in the Class of 2019-2024.

When Iowa's graduation data for the Class of 2024 is sorted district by district, a striking pattern emerges: 136 districts posted their highest graduation rate in the six years of available data. That is 46% of all districts with enough history to measure -- nearly half the state setting records simultaneously.

The good news is real. But it comes with a counterweight. In the same year, 87 districts posted their lowest graduation rate in the dataset. Another 72 fell somewhere in between.

Iowa's graduation story in 2024 is not a state moving together. It is a state splitting apart.

Who is setting records

The list of districts at their all-time high includes some of Iowa's largest and most prominent. Waukee^↗ at 97%. Johnston^↗ at 97%. Ankeny^↗ at 95%. Cedar Falls^↗ at 96%. Linn-Mar^↗ at 95%. These suburban districts have steadily improved throughout the data period and reached their peaks in 2024.

More surprising is the presence of some urban districts on the list. Cedar Rapids^↗ hit its all-time high at 79%. Davenport^↗ reached its peak at 78%. Dubuque^↗ at 82%. These rates are still well below the state average, but they represent genuine improvement for districts that have struggled.

Council Bluffs^↗ at 84%, Muscatine^↗ at 85%, and Clinton^↗ at 80% are also at all-time highs -- mid-size communities that have quietly reached levels they have not achieved in the data period.

Nineteen districts graduated 100% of their students. All are small -- cohorts of 25 or fewer -- where a single student's outcome determines whether the rate is 100% or 96%.

Who is at their worst

The all-time low list is led by Des Moines^↗ at 71% -- the state's largest district, at its lowest point in six years. Marshalltown^↗ at 73%. Oelwein^↗ at 67%. Clayton Ridge at 63%.

Sioux City^↗ at 86% is at its all-time low despite a rate that would seem respectable by urban standards. Ames^↗ at 86% -- home to Iowa State University -- also set a low, a result that may surprise residents of a community that prides itself on educational outcomes.

The all-time low list captures districts on downward trajectories, not just districts with bad rates. Several suburban and college-town districts joined the list in 2024 despite graduating well above the state average. Their rates are high but declining, a pattern that bears watching.

Small districts amplify both extremes

Among the 136 districts at their all-time high, 44 have cohorts smaller than 50 students. In these districts, one or two additional graduates can push the rate from 92% to 100%. The same volatility works in reverse: among the 87 at all-time lows, many are small districts where a few non-completers produced an unusually low rate.

The more reliable signal comes from mid-size and large districts. Among districts with cohorts of 100 or more, 46 hit all-time highs and 15 hit all-time lows. The split is less dramatic but still tilted toward improvement.

The distribution

The histogram of Iowa's 2024 graduation rates shows the state's bifurcation visually. The bulk of districts cluster between 85% and 100%, with a long tail stretching down to 30%. The median district graduates above 90%. But the variation below 80% has grown.

The state average of 88% falls in the middle of the main cluster. But the districts pulling the average down -- Storm Lake at 54%, Clayton Ridge at 63%, Oelwein at 67% -- are farther from the middle than the districts pushing it up. The distribution is not symmetric. It has a heavy left tail that the average does not reveal.

What the split means

A state where 46% of districts are at their best and 30% are at their worst is a state where the graduation problem is concentrating. The districts that are already strong are getting stronger. The districts that struggle are struggling more.

This is not a temporary divergence caused by the pandemic. By 2024, the pandemic's direct effects on graduation have largely washed through. The Class of 2024 entered high school in fall 2020 -- they experienced the worst of COVID disruption as freshmen, then had three relatively normal years. The split in 2024 reflects structural differences between communities, not the lingering tail of a crisis.

The Iowa Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

The Suburban-Urban Divide: West Des Moines at 90%, Des Moines at 71%

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:00:00 GMT

This is part of the Iowa Graduation Rate series, examining trends in the Class of 2019-2024.

Drive west on Interstate 235 from downtown Des Moines to the suburb of West Des Moines^↗ and the graduation rate climbs 18 points. Drive another 10 minutes to Waukee^↗ and it climbs 26 points. Same metro area, same labor market, same Iowa cornfields on the horizon.

The suburban-urban graduation gap is not unique to Iowa, but the state's data exposes it with particular clarity. Iowa's metro areas are small enough that a single district boundary can separate a 71% graduation rate from a 97% graduation rate. The same pattern repeats across every major metro in the state.

Des Moines: 26 points from bottom to top

The Des Moines metro is Iowa's starkest example. In 2024, the seven districts serving the metro produced graduation rates spanning 26 points:

District	Rate	Cohort
Johnston^↗	97.4%	575
Waukee	97.1%	908
Urbandale	94.9%	331
Ankeny^↗	94.7%	893
Southeast Polk	94.1%	625
West Des Moines	89.6%	737
Des Moines^↗	71.4%	2,369

Des Moines Independent serves more students than the other six districts combined. The capital city concentrates the metro's poverty, immigrant population, and English learners while the suburbs serve more affluent, more white, and more stable communities.

The gap between Des Moines and West Des Moines has hovered between 15 and 20 points for six years. It was 15 points in 2019. It peaked at 20 points in 2020-2021 during the pandemic. It stands at 18 points today -- wider than where it started.

Cedar Rapids: 16 points

Cedar Rapids^↗, Iowa's second-largest city, graduated 79% of students in 2024. Its suburban neighbor Linn-Mar^↗ graduated 95%. Cedar Falls, though technically part of the Waterloo metro, graduated 96%.

The College Community School District, which straddles Cedar Rapids' southern boundary, graduated 89% -- illustrating how suburban districts can serve parts of the same city at substantially higher rates.

Quad Cities: 17 points

Davenport^↗ graduated 78% of students. Across the suburban boundary, Bettendorf^↗ graduated 90%. North Scott, further from the urban core, graduated 95%. Pleasant Valley graduated 94%.

The 17-point gap between Davenport and North Scott follows the same pattern as the Des Moines and Cedar Rapids metros: an urban core district serving a diverse, lower-income student body adjacent to suburbs where nine in ten students graduate on time.

The pattern across all cities

Iowa's eight largest urban districts graduated at rates ranging from 71% (Des Moines) to 91% (Iowa City). Only Iowa City and Sioux City exceeded the state average of 88%.

Iowa City's high rate reflects the unusual demographics of a university town. Sioux City, despite a heavily immigrant student body, graduated 86% -- a notable outlier among Iowa's urban districts.

Waterloo^↗ sits at 74%, Dubuque^↗ at 82%, and Council Bluffs at 84%. In each case, adjacent suburban districts graduate at rates 10 to 20 points higher.

What geography measures

The suburban-urban graduation gap is a proxy for a constellation of factors that sort by geography: family income, parental education, English proficiency, housing stability, school funding, and teacher experience. Iowa's metro areas are small enough that these factors change dramatically across a single district boundary.

A student who lives in Des Moines and a student who lives in Waukee may attend middle schools separated by four miles. Their probability of graduating on time differs by 26 percentage points. Iowa's graduation data does not explain why. But it measures the distance precisely, and six years of data show no sign of the gap closing.

Des Moines Independent, West Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Davenport did not respond to requests for comment.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.