NCES CCD 2024-25 9 schools IA

Best-Resourced Schools in Mason City, IA

Compiled from official source data by .

9 public K-12 schools in Mason City from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
9
Schools
3,406
Students
44/100
Avg Resource Index
15.1:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Mason City has more public-school enrollment than 34% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Mason City 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.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

5 of Mason City's 9 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.

A small portfolio contains radically different campus scales

Mason City lists only 9 schools, yet reported enrollment runs from 88 to 891 students, a 10-fold range. In a portfolio this compact, the smallest record may be a specialized or nonstandard setting rather than a miniature version of the largest campus. That distinction affects how ratios and program fields should be read. Compare similarly configured grade levels first; combining the extremes into one city average conceals more than it explains.

City enrollment
Top 66%
School count
Top 46%
Resource Index average
65th percentile
Teacher staffing
53rd percentile

Mason City High School accounts for 26.2% of all Mason City public-school enrollment

That concentration means Mason City-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Mason City school enrollment varies 10× across entities

Mason City school enrollment ranges from 88 students (lowest) to 891 students (highest), a spread of 803 students. That spread reflects typical urban portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. 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

Mason City operates one school district — a single-district system

Mason City's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Mason City student-teacher ratio is 15.1:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

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 Mason City is typically wider than the Mason City-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Lincoln Intermediate 61
2. Jefferson Elementary School 46
3. Harding Elementary School 44
4. Hoover Elementary School 44
5. Alternative School 43
6. John Adams Middle School 42
7. Mason City Virtual Academy 41
8. Roosevelt Elementary School 38
9. Mason City High School 37

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Mason City

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.

  1. 1 Roosevelt Elementary School 59.8/100
  2. 2 Hoover Elementary School 59.5/100
  3. 3 John Adams Middle School 52.2/100
  4. 4 Lincoln Intermediate 49.1/100
  5. 5 Mason City High School 47.2/100

What do families ask about schools in Mason City?

Which Mason City school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Lincoln Intermediate has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Mason City schools in this federal-data comparison at 61/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Mason City, IA? ▼

Mason City has 9 public schools with a total enrollment of 3,406 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 15.1:1.

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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.