Recently released Iowa School Report Card scores rate the state’s school districts on a variety of criteria, including attendance, college-readiness, overall proficiency and more. One of the other categories, closing the achievement gap, measures the performance of a school’s special education and free and reduced lunch students compared to the general population.

Panorama Superintendent Shawn Holloway says the amount of free and reduced lunch students a school building has, is directly correlated to their score on this year’s report card. “What I found interesting is for the schools that were rated ‘Exceptional’, the average free and reduced lunch percent was 23.9%. For ‘High Performing’ schools it was 29.9%. For ‘Commendable’ schools it was 35.3%. ‘Acceptable’ schools had 44% free and reduced lunch students. ‘Needs Improvement’ schools had 57% free and reduced lunch population and ‘Priority’ schools had an average free and reduced lunch population of 69%.”

Panorama Middle School was rated as a ‘High Performing’ school. The high school and elementary school were both identified as ‘acceptable.’