Seymour Elementary School

Seymour Elementary School is a small public elementary school serving grades PK-4 in Seymour, Iowa, with a student population of just 88 students. The school is part of the Seymour Community School District, which is ranked 296 out of 313 school districts in Iowa and has a 0-star rating from SchoolDigger.

Seymour Elementary School has consistently struggled with academic performance, ranking in the bottom half of Iowa elementary schools over the past 10 years. The school's performance on standardized tests is significantly below the state average in both English Language Arts and Mathematics across all grade levels. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, only 63.6% of 3rd graders and 61.1% of 4th graders were proficient or better in ELA, compared to the state averages of 67.9% and 76%, respectively. In Mathematics, the proficiency rates were 75% for 3rd grade and 55.6% for 4th grade, compared to the state averages of 75.8% and 74.3%. Additionally, Seymour Elementary School has consistently high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 15.5% to 25.9% over the past few years, which is significantly higher than the state average.

Despite the school's relatively high spending per student ($16,871 in 2018-2019) compared to nearby Lakeview Elementary ($14,589) and Wayne Elementary ($10,491) schools, and a low student-teacher ratio ranging from 8.9 to 10.3 students per teacher, the academic performance at Seymour Elementary School remains poor. This suggests that simply increasing funding may not be the sole solution to improving student outcomes, and that more targeted interventions and support may be necessary to address the unique challenges faced by the school and its high-poverty student population.