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What's the biggest difference between Building 21 Allentown and what you expected?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
415
High
DISTRICT 1,801 · STATE 738
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ALLENTOWN CITY SD·NCES 420228007623
Building 21 Allentown
265 Lehigh St, Allentown, PA 18102 · (484) 765-4400 · Lehigh County
GRADES 09–12HIGH12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL415 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 8% of Pennsylvania public high schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats 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 high schools
Student : Teacher
16.0:1
26 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 17.6:1 · STATE 12.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
99%
411 students
DISTRICT 102% · STATE 75%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 9 | 119 | 29% |
| Grade 10 | 115 | 28% |
| Grade 11 | 101 | 24% |
| Grade 12 | 80 | 19% |
Student demographics
33%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 43% · 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
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
37.2%
PA avg 51.1% . -2.1pp since 2023
Math
5.3%
PA avg 43.0% . -5.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 37 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 5 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Pennsylvania schools, those numbers are about 51 and 43. Reading and writing scores are down about 2 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 5 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 37.2% | 5.3% |
| 2023-24 | 39.3% | 10.5% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of PA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
17.6%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
35.1%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-17.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 18% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 35% typical for Pennsylvania schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Building 21 Allentown
Building 21 Allentown's state test result (17.6% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Building 21 Allentown this school | 415 | 99.0% | 17.6% |
| Kensington Health Sciences Philadelphia | 457 | 98.2% | 28.4% |
| Phoenix Academy Lancaster | 305 | 89.2% | 3.9% |
| Shenandoah Valley JSHS Shenandoah | 546 | 98.7% | 22.9% |
| Innovative Arts Academy CS Catasauqua | 477 | 70.6% | 8.9% |
| Edison HS/Fareira Skills Philadelphia | 983 | 90.2% | 14.9% |
Matched among Pennsylvania high 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 Building 21 Allentown ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Lehigh County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 17.6% | #537 of 576 | #10 of 11 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 5.3% | #587 of 626 ▼ 34 | #10 of 11 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 37.2% | #524 of 626 ▲ 14 | #8 of 11 ▲ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 415 | #476 of 713 | #11 of 12 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.0:1 | #470 of 601 | #6 of 11 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 32.8% | #278 of 604 | #10 of 11 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 99.0% | #143 of 619 | #3 of 11 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +2.2% | #186 of 221 | #6 of 7 |
Ranked against other public high 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
415
+1 (+0%) vs 2020
Student : Teacher
16.0:1
was 13.8:1
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 | 415 | 26 | 16.0:1 | 99% (411) |
| 2023-24 | 411 | 26 | 15.8:1 | 100% (411) |
| 2022-23 | 439 | 28 | 15.7:1 | 97% (427) |
| 2020-21 | 414 | 30 | 13.8:1 | 97% (400) |
| 2017-18 | 406 | 25 | 16.2:1 | 99% (400) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Building 21 Allentown.
Since 2017-18: students up 2% (406 to 415); teachers up 4% (25 to 26).
About Building 21 Allentown
Building 21 Allentown, a low-enrollment high school, is located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The school's 415 students are in grades 9 through 12. Statewide, high schools in Pennsylvania average about 738 students each.
Allentown City SD runs 23 schools with a combined 16,674 students. Building 21 Allentown is one of them.
About 81% of the student body at Building 21 Allentown is Hispanic. The rest of enrollment is 9% Black, 5% multiracial, and 3% White. Census estimates put the Hispanic share of Lehigh County's population at about 28%. The school's diversity index is 33%, meaning two students picked at random have a 33% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
The count of teachers at Building 21 Allentown is 26 full-time equivalents, for a ratio of 16.0:1. That is higher than the 12.8:1 average for high schools in Pennsylvania. A measure often used for student poverty, free or reduced-price lunch eligibility, stands at 99%. That is 29 points above the 70% average for public schools in Lehigh County.
Building 21 Allentown is graded D by allk12, scoring above 8% of Pennsylvania public high schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Schools in Pennsylvania with a similar free or reduced-price lunch share are predicted to post an average proficiency rate on state tests near 35.1%. Building 21 Allentown posts 17.6%, 17.5 points below that, which places it in the bottom 10% statewide on BeatsExpectations.
Census Bureau estimates for Lehigh County show that the median household income is $80,079, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 34% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 8%. There are 83 public schools in Lehigh County, enrolling about 56,984 students in all.
The shortest distance from Building 21 Allentown to another public school is less than a tenth of a mile, to Arts Academy Elementary CS. Counting only straight-line distance, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. By average proficiency, Building 21 Allentown is 6th among 8 schools close by.
NCES describes the area around Building 21 Allentown as City: Mid-size, meaning inside a principal city with a population between 100,000 and 250,000.
Federal data show 414 students in 2020-21 and 415 in 2024-25, a difference of under 3%. The ratio was 13.8:1 in 2020-21 and 16.0:1 in 2024-25.
Topics for discussion here include science fairs, picture day, and bus routes. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.
Lehigh County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
378,792
Census ACS
Median income
$80,079
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
34%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
83
56,984 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Allentown City SD
- William Allen High SchoolHigh · 3,074 students
- Louis E Dieruff High SchoolHigh · 1,914 students
- South Mountain Middle SchoolMiddle · 972 students
- Francis D Raub Middle SchoolMiddle · 876 students
- Brigadier General Anna Mae Hays Elementary SchoolElementary · 807 students
- Trexler Middle SchoolMiddle · 771 students
Other schools in Allentown
- Parkland High SchoolHigh · 3,279 students
- William Allen High SchoolHigh · 3,074 students
- Louis E Dieruff High SchoolHigh · 1,914 students
- Executive Education Academy CSCombined · 1,497 students
- Springhouse Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,329 students
- Lincoln Leadership Academy CSCombined · 973 students
Nearby schools
- Arts Academy Elementary CS0.1 mi · 425
- Roberto Clemente CS0.2 mi · 619
- Jefferson Elementary School0.6 mi · 522
- Central Elementary School0.6 mi · 694
- Harrison-Morton Middle School0.7 mi · 704
- Roosevelt Elementary School0.9 mi · 631
Frequently asked questions
About Building 21 AllentownWhat is the total enrollment at Building 21 Allentown?
Building 21 Allentown enrolls approximately 415 students in grades 09-12.
What grades does Building 21 Allentown serve?
Building 21 Allentown serves grades 09-12.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Building 21 Allentown?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Building 21 Allentown is approximately 16.0:1 (26 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Building 21 Allentown?
At Building 21 Allentown, the student body is approximately 3% White, 81% Hispanic, 9% Black, 1% Asian, 5% Two or more.
What district is Building 21 Allentown in?
Building 21 Allentown is part of Allentown City SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.