When the state of Iowa released the 2024-25 academic performance profiles in September, students and families received an email detailing the changes in school rankings from the Iowa City Community School District. The updates focused on district advancements and additional areas for improvement, while celebrating the success of the district’s three traditional high schools: Iowa City High School, West High School and Liberty High School. However, the most recent ICCSD report also reminds readers of students who may not have been receiving adequate support.
The state performance profile for the ICCSD assigns ratings for schools across multiple categories, including graduation rates, growth in subjects, assessment participation and post-secondary readiness. While the district clearly succeeded in growth metrics, quality learning conditions and a drop in chronic absenteeism, the district also needs to recognize where to improve.
Between the 2023-24 and the 2024-25 school years, some populations in the district decreased in success; for example, English language learners showed reduced literacy growth across the district compared to past years. Disparity between different groups is further illustrated in the college coursework section of the post-secondary readiness category.
The college coursework section measures the percentage of seniors who earned college credit during high school, but only among students who attended the same high school for all four years. Within the district’s high schools, English learners, students with low socioeconomic status — defined by qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch — and students with Individualized Education Plans all qualified for college credit below the state average level for their groups. The average Iowa student in any of the tracked categories performed better outside of the ICCSD than within. While these numbers don’t fully reflect the district’s unique student demographics or the challenges some students face, they do indicate that some students may not be reaching the same outcomes as their peers.
Despite these disparities, the district has highly competitive schools for college admissions. The U.S. News & World Report ranked West as the top school in the state in 2025, while Liberty and City placed 8 and 12, respectively. Although these rankings reflect the district’s holistic success, they aren’t the only significant metric. Looking across the district’s secondary education programs, including the Tate Alternative High School and ICCSD online program, the numbers fall flat.
During the 2024-25 school year, Tate witnessed a 5.59% decline in college coursework participation. The ICCSD online learning program experienced a 42.31% drop in this same category over the same period. In another section of post-secondary readiness, the OLP saw a 7.69% decrease in work-based learning, while Tate saw a 14.2% increase. This seems reasonable until contrasted with the three main high schools that all saw an over 40% increase due to proper categorization of programs. This indicates that students in alternative programs weren’t accessing coursework that would help them succeed after graduation.
One reason that the ICCSD has successful traditional programs while having below-average success in other groups is the district’s alternative programs. The alternative programs serve many students who don’t meet some state metrics, and their numbers are generally lower; however, it’s still important to examine how these numbers are moving year to year.
The district is progressing on many longstanding equity issues, specifically, focusing on college-level education to diversify long-term goals for students. Recently, the district has focused more on trade schools, two-year degrees and other alternative options. While the district has provided resources like the Iowa Jobs for American Graduates program and local Kirkwood Community College classes, obstacles remain. The ICCSD online classes have a limited selection in part due to their smaller size, with only 15 staff members exclusive to the online program. At Tate, students aren’t offered the same classes, including important college credit opportunities and work-based learning programs. The ICCSD must ensure that these classes, along with the programs they introduce to students, are available and encouraged across the board.
When asked to comment on these issues, the ICCSD responded with an email that said they are “expanding access with virtual/embedded dual-credit courses, dedicated advising and more flexible scheduling so interested students can participate.”
If anything can be taken away from the 2024-25 performance profiles, it’s that the ICCSD needs to focus on supporting all the district’s students. Although the profiles are simply a snapshot of the current system, they show that Tate and the OLP don’t have enough opportunities. While smaller schools will inevitably lack resources that larger schools have, the district must create programs for as many students as possible — whether through offering more courses or finding programs that aren’t reliant on in-school staff.
