Best High Schools in Iowa
The top 50 high schools (grades 9-12) in Iowa, ranked by enrollment from NCES data with EDFacts proficiency rates where available. Average proficiency across this list is 61%.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best high school in Iowa?
The largest high school in Iowa is Lincoln High School in Des Moines with 2,403 students and a 31% proficiency rate. Rankings are based on NCES Common Core of Data enrollment and EDFacts proficiency results.
How many high schools are in Iowa?
This page shows the top 50 high schools (grades 9-12) in Iowa by enrollment. Browse the full state directory to see all schools.
What does the proficiency rate measure?
Proficiency rate is the percentage of students meeting grade-level standards on combined math and reading assessments, as reported by EDFacts. Data is district-level and applied to each school in the district.
Where does this data come from?
Enrollment and school characteristics come from the NCES Common Core of Data. Proficiency rates come from EDFacts assessment results. Both are official federal datasets published by the U.S. Department of Education.
The this entity category groups every U.S. K-12 school outcomes and enrollment entity sharing this attribute. The list above is the data; the paragraphs below explain what the grouping means against the broader NCES Common Core of Data and EDFacts distribution and how to read the relative rankings within the category.
For readers using this category as a starting point, the per-entity detail pages linked from the table above carry the underlying NCES Common Core of Data and EDFacts data in full. The category-level view is the filter; the per-entity pages are the actual answer.
Schools are ranked by enrollment within the state. Proficiency rates come from EDFacts assessment results, district-level figures applied to each school in the district.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, 2026.