Summary:
The 50530 zip code area is home to a single elementary school, Dayton Center, which serves students from the Southeast Valley Community School District. While Dayton Center's performance has fluctuated in recent years, the school has shown some strengths, particularly in 4th-grade Mathematics, where students have outperformed their district and state peers.
Dayton Center's statewide ranking has ranged from 114th out of 565 Iowa elementary schools in 2022-2023 to 341st out of 576 in 2024-2025, indicating inconsistent performance. The school's ISASP test scores also vary, with 3rd-grade students scoring below the district and state averages in English Language Arts, but 4th-grade students exceeding the district and state in both English Language Arts and Mathematics. Additionally, Dayton Center serves a higher proportion of economically disadvantaged students, with 46.34% of its students receiving free or reduced-price lunch in 2023-2024.
Despite the challenges, Dayton Center appears to have access to more resources compared to the national average, with a relatively low student-teacher ratio of 11.4 to 1 and higher per-student spending of $14,497 in 2018-2019. These factors may contribute to the school's performance, both positively and negatively, and suggest that the school is working to support its students' academic and social-emotional needs.
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