Iowa Department of Education Releases Annual Condition of Education Report

Last week the Iowa Department of Education released the latest edition of its annual report containing state-level data and information on Iowa’s schools. 

The Annual Condition of Education report includes data on preschool-through-12th grade student populations and demographics, academic achievement, postsecondary enrollment and completion, teacher and school administrator characteristics and salaries and school financial information. 

Additionally, an online companion to the Condition of Education report allows education stakeholders to dig deeper into interactive enrollment and staffing data at the state and school district levels. A new feature this year includes information on high school course-taking for the graduating classes of 2019 and 2020 across selected courses: algebra II, higher-level mathematics, physics, high-quality computer science and world languages.  

“This report provides a roadmap to see where we are as a state, what things we want to change and what we can anticipate in the coming years,” said Ann Lebo, director of the Iowa Department of Education. “Data and information are critical tools used to help set the course for school improvement, but they do not tell the whole story. It is important for Iowans to connect with their schools to learn more information.” 

The Condition of Education report includes the most recent data through the 2019-20 school year, unless otherwise noted. Highlights from this year’s report include: 

• 25.7%: For the first time, slightly more than one in four Iowa students is a minority student. Students of color make up 25.7 percent of the student population in Iowa school districts, up from 24.9 percent last year. 
• 42.4%: The percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, down slightly from 43.0 percent the year before. 
• 37,567: The number of full-time teachers in public schools in 2019-20, up from 37,386 the year before. There was an 11.8 percent increase in the number of full-time public school teachers from the 2000-01 school year (33,610) to the 2019-20 school year (37,567). 
• $58,110: The average regular teacher salary, up from $57,463 in 2018-19. 
• 6.5%: The percent of students whose native language is not English (English learners), virtually unchanged from the year before. 
• 48.6%: The percent of students from Iowa’s class of 2020 who took higher-level mathematics, including calculus, statistics and trigonometry. This is up from 47.9 percent the year before. 
• 88.1%: The percent of students from Iowa’s class of 2020 who took at least one world language course, up from 85.6 percent the year before. 
• $10,738: The state’s total per-pupil expense in the 2018-19 school year, up from $10,536 the year before.  
• Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Iowa Department of Education received approval from the U.S. Department of Education waiving the requirements to administer all federally-required assessments in the 2019-20 school year. As such, the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress was not administered this past spring and, therefore, no data is available to report for the 2019-20 school year.