Preparing Students to Succeed in High School

Goodrell, located on the east side of Des Moines, was the first middle school in Iowa to offer the International Baccalaureate Programme.

More than 6,600 students attend middle school in Des Moines, at traditional schools as well as special programs.

Eleven comprehensive middle schools – Brody, Brubaker, Callanan, Harding, Goodrell, Hiatt, Hoyt, McCombs, Meredith, Merrill and Weeks – are located throughout the city. Some of these offer special programming, such as Pre-AP at Callanan. In addition, four of these schools (Goodrell, Merrill, Brody and Meredith) are accredited International Baccalaureate schools and Harding is a Turnaround Arts school.

In addition, Cowles Montessori School is Iowa’s only public Montessori school and serves students through 8th grade.

In 2014 an alternative middle school program was established at the Jesse Franklin Taylor Education Center.

For more information about middle schools in Des Moines, visit the directory in the menu to the right.