Iowa school board elections, 2017

Elections

A total of 10 Iowa school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections in 2017 for 32 seats. All of the elections were scheduled on September 12, 2017.

Here are several quick facts about Iowa's school board elections in 2017:

• The largest Iowa school district by enrollment with an election in 2017 was Des Moines Public Schools with 34,355 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.
• The smallest Iowa school district among the nation's largest with an election in 2017 was West Des Moines Community Schools with 9,519 K-12 students in the 2014-2015 school year.

The districts listed below served 149,853 K-12 students during the 2014-2015 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on each one and its school board elections.

2017 Iowa School Board Elections
District	Primary Election	General Election	Runoff Election	Regular term length	Seats up for election	Total board seats	2014-15 enrollment
Ankeny Community School District	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	3	7	10,719
Cedar Rapids Community School District	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	3	7	17,368
Council Bluffs Community School District	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	3	7	9,605
Davenport Community Schools	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	3	7	16,625
Des Moines Public Schools	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	4	7	34,355
Dubuque Community School District	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	3	7	11,350
Iowa City Community School District	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	4	7	13,661
Sioux City Community School District	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	3	7	15,017
Waterloo Community Schools	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	3	7	11,634
West Des Moines Community Schools	N/A	9/12/2017	N/A	4	3	7	9,519

Issues

Iowa school board elections dates to change in 2019

School board elections in Iowa were not held in September after 2017. A bill signed into law by Gov. Terry E. Branstad (R) on May 11, 2017, switched school board elections to November of odd-numbered years starting in 2019. The change combined school board elections with city elections.

Sen. Mark Chelgren (R-41), a supporter of the bill, said it would help increase voter turnout. "This says that we have one less date to remember and we have more participation in the process," said Chelgren. An average of 6.5 percent of voters turned up for school board elections between 2009 and 2015, while an average of 21.3 percent of voters turned up for city elections during that same time period, according to the Iowa Secretary of State.

Sen. Thomas Greene (R-44) also supported the bill and said it would help with the cost of administering elections, but it was not expected to decrease costs for every jurisdiction, according to the Legislative Services Agency. The agency said that larger elections would see varied costs.

The Iowa Association of School Boards and the Iowa State Education Association came out against the bill before it was signed into law. The Iowa State Association of Counties, however, supported the bill.

The bill passed the Iowa House of Representatives with a vote of 68-31, and it passed the Iowa State Senate with a vote of 36-13. Both Democrats and Republicans voted in favor of the bill in both houses, though only one Republican voted against it in the House and no Republicans voted against it in the Senate.

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Iowa

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Education terms
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NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state for a full comparison of all states.

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The chart below presents the percentage of fourth and eighth grade students that scored at or above proficient in reading and math during school year 2012-2013. Compared to three neighboring states (Minnesota, Missouri, and Illinois), Iowa students performed better or equal to those in Missouri and Illinois, but fell behind those in Minnesota. According to the Iowa "Annual Condition of Education Report for 2013," National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results remain unchanged. Iowa fourth and eighth grade NAEP results in mathematics and reading were also similar from the prior years, with no significant gains in either content area or grade level. See the table below for a full comparison.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Iowa	48%	36%	38%	37%
Illinois	39%	36%	34%	36%
Minnesota	59%	47%	41%	41%
Missouri	39%	33%	35%	36%
U.S. averages	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables"

Graduation, ACT and SAT comparisons

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the United States

The following table shows the graduation rates and average composite ACT and SAT scores for Iowa and surrounding states during the 2012-2013 school year. All statements made in this section refer to that school year.

In the United States, public schools reported graduation rates that averaged to about 81.4 percent. About 54 percent of all students in the country took the ACT, while 50 percent reported taking the SAT. The average national composite scores for those tests were 20.9 out of a possible 36 for the ACT, and 1498 out of a possible 2400 for the SAT.

Iowa schools reported a graduation rate of 89.7 percent during the 2012-2013 school year, highest among its neighboring states.

In Iowa, more students took the ACT than the SAT in 2013, earning an average ACT score of 22.1.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores, 2012-2013
State	Graduation rate, 2013		Average ACT composite, 2013		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Iowa	89.7%	First	22.1	66%	1763	3%
Illinois	83.2%	Third	20.6	100%	1807	5%
Minnesota	79.8%	Fourth	23	74%	1780	6%
Missouri	85.7%	Second	21.6	74%	1773	4%
United States	81.4%		20.9	54%	1498	50%
**Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Sources: United States Department of Education, "ED Data Express" ACT.org, "2013 ACT National and State Scores" The Commonwealth Foundation, "SAT scores by state, 2013"

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades nine through 12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for Iowa was slightly higher than the national average at 3.4 percent in the 2010-2011 school year. Iowa's event dropout rate was lower during the 2011-2012 school year though, at 3.2 percent.

State profile

State profile

Demographic data for Iowa
	Iowa	U.S.
Total population:	3,121,997	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	55,857	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	91.2%	73.6%
Black/African American:	3.2%	12.6%
Asian:	2%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more:	2%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	5.4%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	91.5%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	26.7%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$53,183	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	13.8%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Iowa. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Iowa

Iowa voted for the Republican candidate in four out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, 31 are located in Iowa, accounting for 15.04 percent of the total pivot counties.

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Iowa had 31 Retained Pivot Counties, 17.13 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Iowa coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Iowa
• United States congressional delegations from Iowa
• Public policy in Iowa
• Endorsers in Iowa
• Iowa fact checks
• More...

See also

Iowa	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Iowa List of school districts in Iowa	School board elections, 2017 Iowa school board elections, 2016 Iowa school board elections, 2015 Iowa school board elections, 2014	School boards in session: 2015 in brief School board incumbency analysis: 2015 in brief Analysis of spending in America's largest school districts Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey

Footnotes

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