Iowa college websites: readability rankings

Readability scores, grades, and the most common failures for 18 public and 31 private college and university websites in Iowa, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 49
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

Showing Iowa college and university sites. All education sites

Public colleges and universities in Iowa are ranked and averaged together; private nonprofit institutions are listed below with their own average.

D 67

Average readability score of 16 fully scanned Iowa public college sites

10th

of 48 states and territories, ranked by average readability score

16 of 18

Iowa public college sites fully scanned. We couldn't fully scan 2, so they're listed without grades

F 56

Average readability score of all 2,687 fully scanned education sites

How Iowa readability scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 16 fully scanned Iowa public college sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

  • Iowa average
  • All education average
View the data table
Score rangeSites
0 to 95
10 to 190
20 to 290
30 to 390
40 to 490
50 to 590
60 to 690
70 to 790
80 to 890
90 to 10010

Iowa by readability grade, compared with all education sites

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Iowa: 16 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. Iowa
  2. All education sites
  • A (90 to 100)
  • B to C (70 to 89)
  • D to F (below 70)
View the data table
GroupA (90 to 100)B to C (70 to 89)D to F (below 70)
Iowa63% (10)0% (0)31% (5)
All education sites53% (1,425)0% (0)41% (1,110)

Top 3 Iowa public college sites by readability score

#1 in Iowa · U.S. education rank 1

Des Moines Area Community College

A 100 readability

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability A
  • Security B
  • Usability A
  • Readability A

#1 in Iowa · U.S. education rank 1

Eastern Iowa Community College District

A 100 readability

  • Accessibility B
  • Botability A
  • Security C
  • Usability F
  • Readability A

#1 in Iowa · U.S. education rank 1

Indian Hills Community College

A 100 readability

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability B
  • Security C
  • Usability D
  • Readability A

Most common readability failures among Iowa public college sites

Share of the 16 fully scanned Iowa public college sites failing each check. A site can fail more than one check. Each check links to the sites failing it, or to its standard when we have no list yet.

  1. Reading level31%
View the data table
CheckShare failingSites failing
Reading level31%5

What each check means

  • Reading level. Page text reads at or below a 7th grade level so most users can understand it. Users struggle to understand your content.

Every education site with one problem

Iowa public 4-year institutions by readability score

3 sites, 3 fully scanned. Part of the headline average.

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 iastate.edu
Iowa State University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 uiowa.edu
University of Iowa U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
2 uni.edu
University of Northern Iowa U.S. rank 48 		0 of 1 checks pass F

Iowa public 2-year institutions by readability score

15 sites, 13 fully scanned, average readability score 67 (D). Part of the headline average.

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 dmacc.edu
Des Moines Area Community College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 eicc.edu
Eastern Iowa Community College District U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 indianhills.edu
Indian Hills Community College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 iowacentral.edu
Iowa Central Community College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 iowalakes.edu
Iowa Lakes Community College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 kirkwood.edu
Kirkwood Community College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 niacc.edu
North Iowa Area Community College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 scciowa.edu
Southeastern Community College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
2 iavalley.edu
Ellsworth Community College U.S. rank 34 		0 of 1 checks pass F
4 iwcc.edu
Iowa Western Community College U.S. rank 140 		0 of 1 checks pass F
2 nicc.edu
Northeast Iowa Community College U.S. rank 108 		0 of 1 checks pass F
2 swcciowa.edu
Southwestern Community College U.S. rank 70 		0 of 1 checks pass F
hawkeyecollege.edu
Hawkeye Community College 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't fully scan your site because it responded without any page content. Status 995 -
nwicc.edu
Northwest Iowa Community College 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We weren't able to fully scan your site. Status 999 -
3 witcc.edu
Western Iowa Tech Community College U.S. rank 127 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We were able to fully scan your site. Status 200 -

Iowa private nonprofit institutions by readability score

31 sites, 31 fully scanned, average readability score 73 (C). Ranked among themselves. Not part of the public average above.

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 briarcliff.edu
Briar Cliff University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 bvu.edu
Buena Vista University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 central.edu
Central College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 clarke.edu
Clarke University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 coe.edu
Coe College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 dmu.edu
Des Moines University-Osteopathic Medical Center U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 dwci.edu
Divine Word College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 dordt.edu
Dordt University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 faith.edu
Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 graceland.edu
Graceland University-Lamoni U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 grandview.edu
Grand View University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 grinnell.edu
Grinnell College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 luther.edu
Luther College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 miu.edu
Maharishi International University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 morningside.edu
Morningside University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 nwciowa.edu
Northwestern College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 palmer.edu
Palmer College of Chiropractic U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 sau.edu
Saint Ambrose University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 simpson.edu
Simpson College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 dbq.edu
University of Dubuque U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 wartburg.edu
Wartburg College U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
1 wmpenn.edu
William Penn University U.S. rank 1 		1 of 1 checks pass A
2 allencollege.edu
Allen College U.S. rank 42 		0 of 1 checks pass F
2 drake.edu
Drake University U.S. rank 40 		0 of 1 checks pass F
2 emmaus.edu
Emmaus Bible College U.S. rank 74 		0 of 1 checks pass F
2 loras.edu
Loras College U.S. rank 18 		0 of 1 checks pass F
2 mtmercy.edu
Mount Mercy University U.S. rank 140 		0 of 1 checks pass F
2 stlukescollege.edu
St Luke's College U.S. rank 104 		0 of 1 checks pass F
2 uiu.edu
Upper Iowa University U.S. rank 2 		0 of 1 checks pass F
2 wartburgseminary.edu
Wartburg Theological Seminary U.S. rank 184 		0 of 1 checks pass F
3 cornellcollege.edu
Cornell College U.S. rank 255 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We were able to fully scan your site. Status 200 -

About this data

ScanGov scans the homepage of each college and university site on our higher education list. Scores come from the checks in the ScanGov standards. Sites were scanned between 10/28/2026 and 11/8/2026. Each site's report shows its own scan date. A site counts as fully scanned when its homepage loaded and sent us its page content. Averages, grade shares, failure rates, and ranks use fully scanned sites only. We could not fully scan 2 sites. They did not respond, blocked the scanner, or sent no page content. They appear in the table without grades, with their scan status, and are left out of every figure. Grades follow the ScanGov grade scale. Rank follows the ScanGov ranking method. The full dataset, with every county's raw results, is in the ScanGov data repository.

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