Best Public Schools in Durant, IA

The city of Durant, Iowa is home to two schools - Durant Elementary School and Durant Junior/Senior High School, both part of the Durant Community School District. While Durant Elementary consistently outperforms state averages on standardized tests, the high school struggles to meet those benchmarks, indicating a significant performance gap between the two schools.

Durant Elementary School stands out for its high academic achievement, with many grade levels exceeding the state average in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science on the ISASP tests. The school is ranked in the top 20% of Iowa elementary schools for the 2021-2022 school year and the top 40% for 2022-2023. In contrast, Durant Junior/Senior High School performs relatively lower on ISASP tests, with several grade levels falling below the Iowa average, and is ranked in the bottom 25% of Iowa high schools for the 2023-2024 school year.

The data also reveals differences in the schools' socioeconomic factors, with the high school having a higher percentage of free and reduced lunch recipients (31.76%) compared to the elementary school (28.86%). However, the schools have similar spending per student and student-teacher ratios, suggesting that funding and staffing resources are not the primary drivers of the performance gap. The data highlights the need for the district to further investigate the underlying factors contributing to the disparities in academic achievement between the two schools.