Ruby Van Meter
Des Moines · IA · Des Moines Independent Comm School District · Public · K-12 combined
📄 Shareable scorecard →Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Great Oaks High School and Career Center → Walnut Creek Campus → Woodward Academy → Westside Junior-Senior High School → Tri-County JR/SR High School → West Central Charter High School → Earlham Senior High School → Empowering Excellence Charter School →📋 At a glance
- 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 6% of US high schools
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 24% (Bottom 4% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Ruby Van Meter compares for families
What families should know about Ruby Van Meter.
- ▸ LocallyIA students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+8 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Great Oaks High School and Career Center, Walnut Creek Campus, Woodward Academy and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
For Parents
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SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
Bottom 4% of US high schools by 4-yr grad rate
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program
40-74% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. The district can use Title I funds across the whole school under federal Schoolwide Program rules.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
🏛️ Your state's public flagship
University of Iowa
The in-state tuition gap is the flagship's biggest draw — most in-state families pay far less than the out-of-state sticker. Average net price after aid runs about $22,531/yr. Admission odds depend on your student's GPA and test scores, not which high school they attend.
Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: Chronic absence is the most reliable early indicator that a student will leave a school — either by transferring out, dropping out, or matriculating to a charter or private alternative. At this level, today's absentees become next year's enrollment loss and the year-after's revenue loss. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of -1.9%/year, projecting from 2024's 109 students:
A small or specialty program — naive trend math doesn't capture the school's full picture. Read the trend as directional, not predictive.
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Most similar nearby high schools
The schools most like this one — same type, blended on distance and size — and where their enrollment is heading. These are the schools families here weigh against each other.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Oaks High School and Career Center Des Moines |
Public · charter | 3.3 | 72 | — |
| Walnut Creek Campus West Des Moines |
Public | 3.0 | 152 | +17.8% |
| Woodward Academy Woodward |
Public | 23.6 | 100 | -2.0% |
| Westside Junior-Senior High School Westside |
Public | 81.6 | 65 | +18.2% |
| Tri-County JR/SR High School Thornburg |
Public | 69.0 | 58 | -18.3% |
| West Central Charter High School Maynard |
Public · charter | 122.1 | 97 | +12.8% |
| Earlham Senior High School Earlham |
Public | 25.0 | 189 | -2.1% |
| Empowering Excellence Charter School Cedar Rapids |
Public · charter | 107.2 | 120 | — |