West Monona High School

Onawa · IA · West Monona Comm School District · Public


🎓95% 4-yr grad rate

📋 At a glance

Programs & features
  • ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
  • ✅ Gifted & talented program
  • 🔢 1 calculus classes · 1 physics · 1 chemistry
Academic signals
  • 🎓 AP rigor: Bottom 37% of US high schools
  • 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 23% by test-taker volume
  • 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 95% (75th percentile nationally)

Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts graduation data, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.

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How West Monona High School compares for families

Solid mid-tier academic profile.

  • LocallyIA students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+8 points).
  • vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Woodbine High School, WACO High School, North Cedar Jr/Sr High School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.

For Parents

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Objective, government-grade data — no school pays us for placement.

🎓 Academic rigor

AP + advanced-course offerings

Moderate — some AP / advanced course access

Bottom 37% of US high schools

50th 90th ↑ this school
Less rigorMore rigorMost rigor
Advanced math classes
2
1 calculus · 1 advanced
Lab science classes
2
1 physics · 1 chemistry
Other rigor signals
✅ Dual-enrollment program
✅ Gifted/talented program

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).

SAT / ACT participation

CRDC federal data · 2020-21

Bottom 23% by test-taker volume

50th 90th
SAT/ACT test-takers
19
11th-12th graders who took 1+ college admissions test
Test-taking intensity
11.8
takers per 100 students in grades 9-12
Compared against
18,426
US high schools reporting SAT/ACT participation

Source: 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?

75th percentile nationally

50th 90th
4-year graduation rate
95%
Range: 90–100%
4-year cohort size
44
Students in the 9th-grade entry class tracked over 4 years
Compared against
17,988
US high schools reporting 4-year ACGR

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.

👩‍🏫 Teacher workforce · federal CRDC

Teacher experience & reliability

% inexperienced teachers (1st-2nd yr)
6.7%
Strong: experienced corps. New teachers rotate through but most have ≥3 years in.
% chronic teacher absence (≥10 days/yr)
37.8%
Elevated. Teacher absence directly affects classroom continuity and student outcomes.

Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2017-18 — the most recent vintage that publishes per-school teacher quality fields; the 2020-21 sweep had them suppressed). "Inexperienced" = teachers in their first or second year. "Chronic absence" = teachers absent 10+ days/year.

🏛️ Federal Title I context

Title I Schoolwide eligible

≥40% FRPL — qualifies for Title I Schoolwide program

42.2%
FRPL rate — % of students who qualify for the federal Free or Reduced-Price Lunch program. This is the underlying federal income-eligibility signal Title I designations are computed from (ESEA Sec. 1113).
0% (no FRPL) 35% TA · 40% Schoolwide 100% (universal FRPL)

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

85%
admit rate
$11,283
in-state tuition/yr · $33,371 out-of-state
1130–1320
SAT 25–75 · ACT 22–28

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.

See the full University of Iowa profile → Estimate your odds with your scores →

Source: IPEDS admissions, tuition & enrollment + College Scorecard net price. Flagship = the state's primary public research university.

Chronic absenteeism

Share of students absent 15+ days
50.9%
Well above the national average (~16%). At this level, chronic absence becomes a leading driver of enrollment loss as families rotate to other schools.
Students absent 15+ days
82
Federal definition: absent (excused or unexcused) for at least 15 of ~180 school days — about 10% of the school year.

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.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.

Counselor capacity

Student : Counselor
161:1
Below the ASCA 250:1 recommendation — strong capacity for college planning, course selection, and student supports.
Counselor FTE
1.0
Full-time-equivalent school counselors on staff.
Teacher FTE
21
Full-time-equivalent classroom teachers.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.

Enrollment trend & projection

Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).

If the recent trend holds…

At its recent rate of -6.9%/year, projecting from 2024's 161 students:

2025
150
2027
130
2029
113

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.

SchoolTypeMilesHS enrollmentTrend
Woodbine High School
Woodbine
Public 28.4 177 +29.2%
WACO High School
Wayland
Public 237.4 159 +5.3%
North Cedar Jr/Sr High School
Clarence
Public 259.4 170 -15.0%
Walnut Creek Campus
West Des Moines
Public 126.8 152 +17.8%
Pekin Community Junior/ Senior High School
Packwood
Public 212.4 171 -13.2%
Midland Middle/High School
Wyoming
Public 261.6 172 +4.9%
Highland High School
Riverside
Public 239.1 149 -14.4%
Elizabeth Tate Alt. High School
Iowa City
Public 238.3 180 +20.8%

For Parents

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