Southwest Valley Middle School

Southwest Valley Middle School is a public middle school located in Villisca, Iowa, serving 135 students in grades 6-8. The school is part of the Villisca Community School District, which is ranked 215 out of 313 school districts in the state and has a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger.

Academically, Southwest Valley Middle School has shown mixed performance compared to the state average on the ISASP (Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress) tests. In 2024-2025, the school's proficiency rates in English Language Arts and Mathematics were above the state average for 6th and 7th grades, but below the state average for 8th grade. The school's 8th-grade Science proficiency rate was also below the state average. Over the past few years, the school's academic performance has fluctuated, with some years showing stronger results and other years weaker performance compared to the state.

Another area of concern for the school is its relatively high chronic absenteeism rates, ranging from 21.6% to 25.0% in recent years, which is significantly higher than the state's average. Additionally, the school has a higher percentage of students receiving free or reduced-price lunch, ranging from 39.62% to 48.32% in recent years, suggesting a higher proportion of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. However, the school maintains a relatively low student-teacher ratio, ranging from 10.5 to 10.6, and has higher-than-average spending per student at $13,094 in the 2018-2019 school year, which may indicate access to more resources and funding compared to other schools in the state.