ADM High School was recently ranked the #6 high-performing school in the state of Iowa. This is no easy feat, and it’s thanks to the staff and students who attend ADM that the district is able to meet such high standards.
Schools are ranked nationally by U.S. News and World Report, and rankings are determined based on college readiness, college curricular breadth, state assessments proficiency and performance, underserved students’ performance and graduation rate. All of these factors are collected by researchers at U.S. News and World Report and are published at the beginning of the school year.
Superintendent Greg Dufoe was pleased to hear the news of our high ranking. He shares that ADM as a district tries hard to stay ahead and proficient. Even though the district is high ranking, that doesn’t mean that they don’t still have struggles. “We still have a percentage of students who aren’t proficient as readers in our K-12 buildings,” Dufoe said. “We still have a lot of work to do, even though we’re highly ranked and win awards.” ADM’s ranking has been on the rise for several years, with this year being our highest ranking.
With a high ranking comes stress. It’s natural to be stressed when there is pressure to do well. Both staff and students at ADM said that they experience stress, including Dufoe. “It’s a good pressure,” Dufoe said. “The right amount of stress is necessary to grow and to be pushed.” Similar sentiments are held by students involved in ADM’s Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program, as well as many other activities both in and outside of school.
ADM’s GATE program aims to help students who are in the 95th percentile of their grade—based on data from the Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP), among other standardized tests—reach higher levels. Beth Knipper is the advisor of the GATE program, and she works to help students get their associate’s degree through DMACC while in high school.
Last year, ten students graduated with one of their associates, and a few of these students graduated with both their associate’s of arts and of science. That’s not all the GATE program does, however. Knipper acts as an extra counselor for students, working on their schedules as well as social-emotional skills.
“We work on executive functioning skills. We work on procrastination. . . there’s a lot of different things,” Knipper said. She goes on to share how each student’s experience in the GATE program is individualized and customized according to each student’s needs.
Finlee Burns, a junior in ADM’s Gifted Program, is among these students working towards their associate’s degree. She shares some of the stress she feels, but for Burns, it’s almost entirely pressure she has placed on herself.
“It’s just the want to do the best I can and not fall behind and set myself up for a good career in the future,” Burns said.
ADM’s administrative staff, such as Dufoe, work on goal setting, among other things, to remain high-achieving. Admins aren’t the only ones who have to work towards being high-achieving. Teachers are encouraged to help all students push themselves to do more.
English teacher and speech coach Emma Bedard shares that she feels that there is a minor imbalance of pressure between teachers and administrators. “Sometimes I don’t always know if administration fully understands or sees what goes on in the classroom, so sometimes I do feel like there’s a belief that pressure is balanced, but sometimes I think what is being asked is hard to do,” Bedard said.
In a press conference with Dufoe, he shared that it is a large goal for administrators at all levels, K-12, to get into teachers’ classrooms to help them get a better understanding of how the classroom works. “Our goal is for nine out of ten administrators to get into two classrooms per day, in a given week,” Dufoe said. “As of last Thursday [January 29th], we visited 1,520 total classrooms. That’s a huge win.”
Bedard, Knipper, and Dufoe all agree that getting a high ranking helps boost morale and makes everything feel worth it. “Knowing that the work we put in is coming out to something greater is very rewarding for someone who puts a lot of time and heart into the job they do,” Bedard said.
ADM Alumni Thora Hegarty was among the DMACC graduates in May of 2025 who graduated with both her Associate of Arts and Associate of Science. Hegarty was not only a scholar, but she was also in a variety of clubs and activities while in high school. Hegarty was in ADM’s varsity jazz choir, Amp, speech, crochet club, the musical and the E-sports team her senior year.
Hegarty expresses feeling stretched thin with all her commitments. Hegarty shared that she struggled with “immense burnout. Especially from taking so many online classes and AP courses and everything.” She goes on to explain that, given the chance to go back and do high school all over again, she would not have taken all of the courses she took.
“I don’t know if I would have actually wanted to go for my associate’s degree during high school, knowing what I know now,” Hegarty said. “I think that it was a bit more of me wanted to be an overachiever, more than me actually prioritizing my mental health.”
Hegarty isn’t alone in this feeling. Burns also reports feeling strong feelings of burnout, but still feels such pressure to take full advantage of the opportunities ADM provides for her. “It’s the pressure I put on myself since freshman year. I was gonna do the classes, it’s an option, so I might as well take that option. Especially if they’re giving me college credit because that means I get free college credit,” Burns said.
According to Education Data Initiative, the average cost of college tuition in the United States is “$38,270 per student per year, including books, supplies, and daily living expenses” (Hanson). Meanwhile, the median household income for Iowan families is $97,491, according to Income by Zipcode. That means that to pay an average U.S. college tuition, a family would only have approximately $59,000 left to buy all of their essentials, such as food, clothes, rent, etc.
ADM has 19.2% of its students who are a part of a lower socioeconomic status (Department of Education – Iowa School Performance Profiles). ADM’s strong collaboration with DMACC allows for students who may not be able to afford college recieve a degree while still in High School. The same goes for students who are expected to pay for college themselves and don’t want to fall into intense pools of debt. The average amount of student loan debt in Iowa is $30,698, which could take anywhere from ten to fifty years to pay off.
There is good and bad to being a high-achieving school. Sometimes the stress will become too much, but it’s important to remember that there are resources for you everywhere. You can always talk to a counselor, teacher, or parent if you’re struggling. Through stress, joy, and the ups and downs, that’s what it means to be high-achieving.
