Enrollment
74
Iowa · 2024-25 NCES data
Other / mixed grade configuration · Stratford, IA
Stratford Elementary
Federal NCES profile for Stratford Elementary, including enrollment, faculty, free-lunch eligibility, demographics, and resource indicators - Resource Investment Index 47/100.
2024-25 NCES dataOther / mixed grade configurationNCES 192748001603
👥 S:T ratio 58
🌟 Gifted program 30
🎓 Counselors 41
📋 Attendance 60
Scored 0–100 from federal NCES and CRDC indicators, resource allocation, not test scores. Full methodology →
The verdict
Stratford Elementary earns 47/100 on the Resource Investment Index, with class sizes smaller than 90% of Iowa schools. It is also one of the smallest schools in Iowa.
- 47
- Resource Index · Typical
- 10.6:1
- small classes for Iowa
- 46.3%
- free-lunch eligible
- 74
- students enrolled
Stratford Elementary has class sizes smaller than 90% of Iowa schools. Computed live against every Iowa school reporting to NCES.
School address
District: Stratford Comm School District · Iowa
NCES ID 192748001603 Verify on NCES CCD record →
Teachers (FTE)
7.0
Federal CCD staff survey
Students per teacher
10.6:1
vs 14.8:1 Iowa avg
-28% vs state
Free-lunch eligible
46.3%
vs 36.4% Iowa avg
+27% vs state
Student-teacher ratio in context
How Stratford Elementary compares with Iowa and U.S. medians
What stands out at Stratford Elementary
Small campus with unusually lean teacher staffing
Stratford Elementary sits near the smaller end of the Iowa enrollment distribution while also reporting a lower student-teacher ratio than most state schools. That pairing is consistent with a compact, teacher-dense setting, though small scale can limit the number of specialized courses or support roles a campus can sustain. The program and staffing sections below show whether the lean ratio extends beyond classroom teachers into broader student services.
Need and resources require a component-level read
Stratford Elementary falls within the wide middle of the Iowa distribution on both free-meal eligibility and the Resource Investment Index. Neither measure supplies an honest headline by itself. The useful distinctions are in the components: classroom staffing, counselor availability, attendance, gifted-program access, and district spending. Those fields can pull in opposite directions even when the overall percentile looks ordinary.
A combined-grade campus has a different support burden
Stratford Elementary serves a combined grade span rather than a conventional elementary, middle, or high-school band. That structure can require the same campus to cover transitions, counseling needs, and programs for students at substantially different developmental stages, so a single staffing ratio deserves more caution than it would at a narrower-grade school. Federal totals show the available people and programs, but not how those resources are divided among grade levels.
Stratford Elementary is a small combined-grade school in Stratford, Iowa, enrolling 74 students.
Classes run notably small here: at 10.6:1, Stratford Elementary is leaner than roughly 90% of Iowa schools and 28% under the state's 14.8:1 norm, more adult attention per pupil than most peers.
Economic need runs somewhat above the state's typical profile, with 46.3% of students eligible for free meals.
This is a small campus: fewer students than 95% of Iowa schools, with 74 enrolled.
Its Resource Investment Index sits near the middle of the pack among 1,322 scored Iowa schools.
Against 50 statewide peers matched on enrollment and economic need, it ranks mid-pack at #24.
Its student body is predominantly White (88% of enrollment) (diversity index 22/100).
Counselor coverage runs a bit thin, about 296 students per counselor, somewhat past the ASCA-recommended 250:1 benchmark.
16.2% of students were chronically absent in the 2021-22 collection, in line with the post-pandemic national range.
The surrounding Stratford Comm School District spends $20,500 per pupil, 53% above the Iowa average, a better-resourced district than most.
Stratford Comm School District operates only this one school, so Stratford Elementary has no district-mates to compare against locally. At 74 students, it is also a small operation, on the smaller end of Iowa's single-school districts.
Sourced from NCES CCD, CRDC, and F-33 (federal records, not a quality verdict). How we source and compute this.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data + CRDC + F-33 · 2024-25
How Stratford Elementary compares
Stratford Elementary on the metrics families compare, against Iowa and U.S. means.
| Metric | This school | vs Iowa | Iowa avg | U.S. avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher | 10.6:1 | ▼ 28% | 14.8:1 | 15.7:1 |
| Free-lunch eligible | 46.3% | ▲ 27% | 36.4% | 51.7% |
| Enrollment | 74 | top 95% | - | - |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data School-level CCD + state/national means from Public School Universe · 2024-25
10.6:1
Leaner classes than 85% of US schools, among the more generously staffed nationally.
74
Bigger than 8% of US schools by enrollment, a small campus.
Equity indicators (what these measure)
Economic need
46.3%
free-lunch eligible
- 27% above the Iowa average of 36.4%
Above the 40% Title I schoolwide threshold; federal funds support the whole school, not individual students.
Staffing depth
10.6:1
students per teacher
- 28% below state mean
Top 10% in Iowa - lower ratio than 90% of state schools
Well under the widely cited 15:1 individualized-attention benchmark, among the leaner class loads nationally.
Engagement
16.2%
chronically absent (missed 10%+ of school days)
In the 15-20% range, nearing the "high" absenteeism threshold.
Funding equity
$20,500
per pupil, district-wide
- above Iowa avg of $13,441
Somewhat above the U.S. public-school average, reflecting higher local or state investment per enrolled student.
Support staff
Counselors0.3 FTE
Student-support staffing from the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Discipline context
0
in-school suspensions + 0 out-of-school
Suspension rate: 0.0 per 100 students. Combined in-school and out-of-school rate: 0.0 per 100 students. Reported via the Civil Rights Data Collection.
Student demographics
White 87.8%
Hispanic or Latino 9.5%
American Indian / Alaska Native 1.4%
Two or More 1.4%
Largest group: White at 87.8% of enrollment.
Student-body diversity index 22.0/100
Simpson diversity index - at 22.0, Stratford Elementary is less mixed than the Iowa school average of 33.8.
Programs
Funding & spending
District-wide per-pupil expenditure for Stratford Comm School District, which includes Stratford Elementary.
$20,500
Per student
+53%
vs Iowa
Avg $13,441
+16%
vs U.S.
Avg $17,658
Revenue mix
Local 50.2%
State 40.1%
Federal 9.6%
Source: NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey District-level finance · FY 2022-23 Per-pupil expenditure reflects the district-wide average. Individual school budgets are not reported at the federal level.
Similar other schools statewide
Matched by enrollment size and by staffing ratio across all of Iowa, not just this city - a different peer set than the local comparisons above.
Similar enrollment (~74 students)
Next steps
Verify locally before acting on Stratford Elementary's federal record.
- Compare Stratford Elementary against another school. Compare schools
- Stratford Comm School District's spending and staffing shape this school. District profile
- Confirm current enrollment and boundaries with the school. Choosing guide
Federal record (CCD 2024-25, CRDC 2021-22) - PlainSchools assigns no subjective rating; the composite quality score is a transparent, reproducible index computed from this cited federal data.
Frequently asked questions about Stratford Elementary
How many students attend Stratford Elementary?
Stratford Elementary has 74 students enrolled. It is a public school in Stratford, IA.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Stratford Elementary?
The student-teacher ratio at Stratford Elementary is 10.6:1, which is 28% lower than the Iowa average of 14.8:1 and 32% lower than the national average of 15.7:1. Lower ratios generally mean more individual attention per student.
What percentage of students receive free lunch at Stratford Elementary?
46.3% of students at Stratford Elementary are eligible for free lunch, compared to the Iowa average of 36.4%.
What is the racial and ethnic makeup of Stratford Elementary?
The largest demographic group at Stratford Elementary is White at 87.8% of enrollment, in Stratford, IA.
What is the Resource Investment Index for Stratford Elementary?
Stratford Elementary has a Resource Investment Index of 47/100 (typical reported resources relative to schools nationally) based on 4 factors: student-teacher ratio, gifted-program reporting, counselor availability, chronic absenteeism. Not a test-score or academic measure (national median ~41/100, see methodology).
What other schools are in Stratford Comm School District?
None reported; Stratford Comm School District operates only Stratford Elementary as a public school district in NCES's records.
Related tools
Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal records, no number is typed in by an editor. Each school's figures reflect its most recent NCES/CRDC submission on file. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.