Enrollment
100
Middle
DISTRICT 203 · STATE 594
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·BENTON AREA SD·NCES 420339007644
Benton Area Middle School
400 Park St, Benton, PA 17814 · (570) 925-2651 · Columbia County
GRADES 07–08MIDDLE42-RURALTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL100 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 88% of Pennsylvania public middle schools
- B+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A+Beats expectations How far test scores land above or below what the share of low-income students predicts for a school in this state.
- ·Three-year trend Not available for this school, so the grade uses the other parts.
Grades compare a school only with schools in the same state, because every state gives its own test. How grades work · Top-graded Pennsylvania public middle schools
Student : Teacher
10.5:1
10 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 10.3:1 · STATE 13.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
97%
97 students
DISTRICT 98% · STATE 75%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other middle schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 7 | 44 | 44% |
| Grade 8 | 56 | 56% |
Student demographics
10%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 10% · STATE 59% · US 70%
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. District, state, and US figures are each group's share of all public school students in that area (US excludes territories). Very small groups may be suppressed in the source, so categories do not always sum exactly to total enrollment.
Gender split
School pathway
Students here typically continue to
Benton Area Middle School→Benton Area High School
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Benton Area SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
69.1%
PA avg 51.1% . +2.4pp since 2023
Math
54.3%
PA avg 43.0% . +25.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 69 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 54 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Pennsylvania schools, those numbers are about 51 and 43. Reading and writing scores are up about 2 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 25 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 69.1% | 54.3% |
| 2023-24 | 66.7% | 29.1% |
% Proficient or Advanced, all students and all tested grades.
Source: PSSA + Keystone. All students, all grades. See all years and grades →
BeatsExpectations
Demographically-adjusted score · methodologyTier
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of PA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
56.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
36.0%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+20.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 56% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 36% typical for Pennsylvania schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 20 points, placing it in Pennsylvania's top 10%.
BeatsExpectations runs a per-state regression of proficiency on free/reduced-lunch share, then scores each school by residual. How this is calculated →
Schools most like Benton Area Middle School
Benton Area Middle School's state test result (56.0% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benton Area Middle School this school | 100 | 97.0% | 56.0% |
| Mercer Area Middle School Mercer | 136 | 97.8% | 46.1% |
| Tunkhannock STEM Academy Tunkhannock | 137 | 97.8% | 32.2% |
| Bucktail Area Middle School Renovo | 117 | 91.5% | 30.3% |
| Wilmington Area Upper Elementary School New Wilmington | 142 | 98.6% | 40.7% |
| A J McMullen School Markleysburg | 164 | 98.8% | 50.1% |
Matched among Pennsylvania middle schools on enrollment, the share of students from low-income families (eligible for free or reduced-price lunch), and racial and ethnic makeup. Proficient is the average share of students meeting the state standard across all of the school's state tests in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the same combined score our test-score rankings use. Online schools and schools serving specialized populations are not matched.
Where Benton Area Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania |
|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 56.0% | #141 of 479 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 54.3% | #88 of 513 ▲ 258 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 69.1% | #75 of 513 ▲ 51 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 100 | #519 of 522 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 97.0% | #117 of 510 |
Ranked against other public middle schools. Online schools are left out of every list, and test-score lists leave out schools that serve specialized populations. Each rank links to the full list. Arrows under a test-score rank show places moved since the prior test year, among schools tested both years.
4-year change
SY 2020-21 vs SY 2024-25Enrollment
100
-11 (-10%) vs 2020
Student : Teacher
10.5:1
was 12.3:1
Source: NCES Common Core of Data
Enrollment and staffing by year
| School year | Students | Teachers (FTE) | Students per teacher | Free and reduced lunch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 100 | 9.5 | 10.5:1 | 97% (97) |
| 2023-24 | 113 | 8.5 | 13.4:1 | 97% (110) |
| 2022-23 | 104 | 9.1 | 11.5:1 | 56% (58) |
| 2020-21 | 111 | 9 | 12.3:1 | 9% (10) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Benton Area Middle School.
About Benton Area Middle School
Benton Area Middle School is a middle school in Benton, Pennsylvania, and it is part of Benton Area SD. Enrolled students number 100 students, in grades 7 through 8. Enrollment is 83% lower than the average for middle schools in Pennsylvania, which is about 594.
The district, Benton Area SD, operates 3 schools serving 608 students.
White students make up 95% of enrollment at Benton Area Middle School. Smaller groups are 4% Black. For comparison, Columbia County is about 91% White. The school's diversity index is 10%, meaning two students picked at random have a 10% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
The school has about 10.5 students per teacher and 9.5 full-time-equivalent teachers. This ratio sits 2.6 below the 13.2:1 average for middle schools in Pennsylvania. Federal records put free or reduced-price lunch eligibility at 97%. That rate is above the 56% average among public schools in Columbia County.
Measured against Pennsylvania public middle schools, Benton Area Middle School receives an A. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
Benton Area Middle School beats its predicted average proficiency rate on state tests by 20.0 points (56.0% versus 36.0%), a top-10% result in Pennsylvania on BeatsExpectations.
Benton Area Middle School is located in Columbia County, where the median household income is $64,644, roughly 27% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 8%. Benton Area Middle School is one of 20 public schools in the county.
The closest public school to Benton Area Middle School is Benton Area High School, less than a tenth of a mile away. Counting only straight-line distance, 2 other public schools are within five miles. Its average proficiency rate of 56.0% is above the 53.5% average for nearby schools.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is Rural: Distant: in rural territory some distance from an urban area.
2024-25 enrollment was 100, a 10% decrease from 111 in 2020-21. The ratio was 12.3:1 in 2020-21 and 10.5:1 in 2024-25.
Parents and students can post about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater at Benton Area Middle School. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Columbia County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
65,362
Census ACS
Median income
$64,644
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
27%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
20
7,501 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Benton Area SD
- L R Appleman Elementary SchoolElementary · 308 students
- Benton Area High SchoolHigh · 200 students
Other schools in Benton
- L R Appleman Elementary SchoolElementary · 308 students
- Benton Area High SchoolHigh · 200 students
Nearby schools
- Benton Area High School0.0 mi · 200
- L R Appleman Elementary School0.2 mi · 308
- Northwest Area Primary School7.7 mi · 215
- Millville Area Elementary School9.1 mi · 291
- Millville Area JSHS9.2 mi · 234
- Northwest Area High School10.0 mi · 406
Frequently asked questions
About Benton Area Middle SchoolHow large is Benton Area Middle School?
Benton Area Middle School enrolls approximately 100 students in grades 07-08.
What age range does Benton Area Middle School serve?
Benton Area Middle School serves students from grade 07 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Benton Area Middle School?
Approximately 10.5:1 students per teacher at Benton Area Middle School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Benton Area Middle School?
At Benton Area Middle School, the student body is approximately 95% White, 1% Hispanic, 4% Black.
Is Benton Area Middle School public or private?
Benton Area Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Benton Area SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.