17 public K-12 schools in Council Bluffs from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.
National city placement
According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Council Bluffs has more public-school enrollment than 83% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Council Bluffs sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.
10 of Council Bluffs's 17 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.
The 21-point gap between Lewis & Clark Elementary School and Thomas Jefferson High School shows the range hidden by Council Bluffs's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.
Council Bluffs school enrollment ranges from 271 students (lowest) to 1,333 students (highest), a spread of 1,062 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Council Bluffs is typically wider than the Council Bluffs-aggregate figure suggests.
| # | School | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Lewis & Clark Elementary School | 56 |
| 2. | Rue Elementary School | 51 |
| 3. | Hoover Elementary School | 49 |
| 4. | Edison Elementary School | 47 |
| 5. | E a Kreft Primary School | 46 |
| 6. | College View Elementary | 46 |
| 7. | Lewis Central Middle School | 45 |
| 8. | Longfellow Elementary School | 45 |
| 9. | Titan Hill Intermediate School | 44 |
| 10. | Bloomer Elementary School | 43 |
| 11. | Lewis Central Senior High School | 42 |
| 12. | Gerald W Kirn Middle School | 42 |
| 13. | Woodrow Wilson Middle School | 40 |
| 14. | Abraham Lincoln High School | 39 |
| 15. | Roosevelt Elementary School | 39 |
| 16. | Franklin Elementary School | 39 |
| 17. | Thomas Jefferson High School | 35 |
Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.
Lewis & Clark Elementary School has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Council Bluffs schools in this federal-data comparison at 56/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.
Council Bluffs has 17 public schools with a total enrollment of 11,022 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 15.1:1.
Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Iowa →
Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.
