Cowles Elementary School
Des Moines, IA · Middle School · Grades -1-8
Cowles Elementary School is a middle school in Des Moines, IA with 391 students enrolled and a 65% proficiency rate. Part of Des Moines Independent Comm School District. NCES data from the U.S. Department of Education.
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About This School
Cowles Elementary School is a middle school located in Des Moines, Iowa. The school serves 391 students in grades -1-8. The student-to-teacher ratio is 18.6:1.
According to EDFacts assessment data, 65% of students meet grade-level proficiency standards in combined math and reading.
17% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Cowles Elementary School is part of the Des Moines Independent Comm School District in Iowa.
How This School Compares
Cowles Elementary School has 391 students enrolled, making it smaller than the average school in Des Moines Independent Comm School District (513 students). Its 65% proficiency rate is 26 percentage points above the district average of 39%. Compared to the Iowa state average of 53%, the school performs 12 points higher.
Other Schools in Des Moines Independent Comm School District
Frequently Asked Questions
Cowles Elementary School has 391 students enrolled in grades -1-8. The student-to-teacher ratio is 18.6:1.
According to EDFacts data, 65% of students at Cowles Elementary School meet grade-level proficiency standards in combined math and reading assessments.
Cowles Elementary School is part of the Des Moines Independent Comm School District in Des Moines, Iowa. You can view all schools in this district on the district page.
All data on this page comes from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessment results. These are official federal datasets published by the U.S. Department of Education.
School profiles are built from NCES directory data and EDFacts assessment results. Proficiency rates reflect combined math and reading performance. Graduation rates are reported for high schools with available data.
this entity is one of the data points covered by this site’s U.S. K-12 school outcomes and enrollment dataset. The detail above comes directly from NCES Common Core of Data and EDFacts; the context that follows situates the headline numbers against the broader distribution across U.S. public schools and districts.
Every number on this page links back to NCES Common Core of Data and EDFacts; the methodology page describes the inputs, refresh cadence, and known limitations of the underlying data product.
For readers using this page as a decision input, the related-entity pages elsewhere on the site provide the comparison set. The most useful comparison for this entity is typically a peer within U.S. public schools and districts with similar size, similar exposure, or similar geography — not the national-level summary alone.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, 2026.