BOONE — Though Iowa remains the only state with separate governing bodies for boys and girls high school athletics, both rely on the BEDS numbers reported by the 363 member schools to determine classification for competition purposes.
Athletic placings are only a portion of what the Iowa Department of Education uses the BEDS (Basic Educational Data System) for, with a variety of survey, achievement, staffing and other issues also using BEDS numbers.
The BEDS numbers reported by each school are for those currently in grades 9-11. Those results will be used to place schools in respective competitive classes for the 2019-2020 school year.
Classification is a mixed bag, as the IGHSAU (girls) has divided some sports into five classes, something the IAHSAA has not done. There are other differences as well, with six classes for football, three for boys and girls soccer, one for swimming and tennis and so on.
West Des Moines Valley has the highest reported BEDS number, at 2,201, but Waukee is rapidly closing in and now has 2,147 as a number with Des Moines Lincoln third overall at 1,793.
The bottom end of the scale shows Diagonal at 21 and 363 in size. A series of small private schools and academies dot the low end of the overall rankings, with South Page (College Springs) No. 358 at 30 students and Orient-Macksburg No. 353 at 36 accounting for the three smallest public schools in Iowa.
Many of the smallest schools have sharing arrangements with neighboring district, but not all, and in not all sports.
Following at the Raccoon River Conference numbers for 2019-2020 use.
- Boone 471 (62nd in overall size)
- Carlisle 464 (63)
- Bondurant-Farrar 436 (66)
- Perry 428 (67)
- Ballard 403 (70)
- Winterset 397 (73)
- ADM 391 (76)
- Carroll 377 (82)
Joining the RRC for the 2020-2021 school year will be both Gilbert and North Polk. The numbers each will use next year in their last year outside the RRC are Gilbert 366 (88) and North Polk 357 (94).
Other area schools include DC-G, who saw a rise, over the last four years, from 570 to 641, though they remained at 50th overall. Perry, in comparison, was at 424 and 68th four years ago. Greene County’s most recent numbers are 291 and 111th.
The 12-member West Central Activities Conference is home to most schools in the immediate surrounding area that are not RRC members. The BEDS numbers for WCAC schools, and their overall size ranking, are listed below.
- Des Moines Christian 229 (141)
- Panorama 207 (153)
- AC/GC 187 (169)
- Pleasantville 184 (171)
- West Central Valley 183 (175)
- Interstate-35 177 (184)
- Woodward-Granger 176 (185)
- Van Meter 175 (187)
- Woodward Academy 171 (196)
- Ogden 157 (214)
- Earlham 153 (221)
- Madrid 148 (227)
W-G has grown from 161 and 205th overall in the past four seasons, with Panorama showing the most growth, expanding from 165 and 193rd, rising 40 spots in terms of overall size.
