Enrollment
100
Middle
DISTRICT 203 · STATE 594
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·BENTON AREA SD·NCES 420339007644
Benton Area MS
400 Park St, Benton, PA 17814 · (570) 925-2651 · Columbia County
GRADES 07–08MIDDLE42-RURALTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL100 STUDENTS
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
Student demographics
Student head counts by race/ethnicity from federal NCES enrollment data. 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 MS→Benton Area HS
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.
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 →
About Benton Area MS
Located at 400 Park St, in Benton, Pennsylvania, Benton Area MS is an one-room-style middle school that caters to 100 students (grades 7 through 8), part of Benton Area SD. By comparison, Pennsylvania's public schools average about 594 students each, so Benton Area MS sits 83% leaner than that benchmark.
Benton Area SD comprises 3 schools with combined enrollment of 608 students; Benton Area MS is among them.
On the student-mix side, Benton Area MS shows that the student body is overwhelmingly White (95%). Other groups include 4% Black. Compared to Columbia County overall, the school's racial mix sits in roughly the same range.
Looking at school resources, Staff filings list 10 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 10.5:1 students per teacher. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 13.2:1 average. Around 97% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Columbia County (around 56%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.
On a demographically-adjusted basis, Benton Area MS ranks in the top 10% of Pennsylvania public schools. The BeatsExpectations model, a per-state regression of composite proficiency on FRL share, predicts schools with this student profile to land around 36.0%; Benton Area MS posts 56.0%, +20.0 points above that line.
In the area at large, the surrounding county (Columbia County) records that median household income runs about $64,644, 27% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 8%. Benton Area MS is one of 20 public schools in Columbia County (combined enrollment of about 7,501 students).
Nearest neighbor: Benton Area HS, around 0.0 miles off. 2 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, Benton Area MS comes 3rd of 8 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 53.5%.
Geographically, the school is in a countryside area.
On allk12, posts here usually surface around pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.
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 El SchElementary · 308 students
- Benton Area HSHigh · 200 students
Other schools in Benton
- L R Appleman El SchElementary · 308 students
- Benton Area HSHigh · 200 students
Nearby schools
- Benton Area HS0.0 mi · 200
- L R Appleman El Sch0.2 mi · 308
- Northwest Area Primary Sch7.7 mi · 215
- Millville Area Elementary School9.1 mi · 291
- Millville Area JSHS9.2 mi · 234
- Northwest Area HS10.0 mi · 406
Frequently asked questions
About Benton Area MSHow large is Benton Area MS?
Benton Area MS enrolls approximately 100 students in grades 07-08.
What age range does Benton Area MS serve?
Benton Area MS serves students from grade 07 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Benton Area MS?
Approximately 10.5:1 students per teacher at Benton Area MS.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Benton Area MS?
At Benton Area MS, the student body is approximately 95% White, 1% Hispanic, 4% Black.
Is Benton Area MS public or private?
Benton Area MS 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.