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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Carlisle Area HS?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,559
High
DISTRICT 509 · STATE 738
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·CARLISLE AREA SD·NCES 420501001694
Carlisle Area High School
623 W. Penn St., Carlisle, PA 17013 · (717) 240-6800 · Cumberland County
GRADES 09–12HIGH13-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL1,559 STUDENTS
B-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 47% of Pennsylvania public high schools
- BTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+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 high schools
Student : Teacher
14.1:1
111 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 14.1:1 · STATE 12.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
45%
704 students
DISTRICT 56% · 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 | 396 | 25% |
| Grade 10 | 385 | 25% |
| Grade 11 | 392 | 25% |
| Grade 12 | 386 | 25% |
Student demographics
60%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 62% · 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
Based on grade levels within Carlisle Area SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
63.4%
PA avg 51.1% . -4.0pp since 2023
Math
39.0%
PA avg 43.0% . +1.5pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 63 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 39 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 4 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 2 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 63.4% | 39.0% |
| 2023-24 | 67.4% | 37.5% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
52.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
58.3%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-5.8pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 52% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 58% typical for Pennsylvania schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations measures results against demographically similar schools rather than by raw scores, and this school falls within the typical range, neither among Pennsylvania's top nor bottom 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 Carlisle Area High School
Carlisle Area High School's state test result (52.4% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carlisle Area High School this school | 1,559 | 45.2% | 52.4% |
| Central York High School York | 1,756 | 41.9% | 63.7% |
| Cedar Cliff High School Camp Hill | 1,333 | 41.8% | 50.8% |
| Upper Moreland High School Willow Grove | 1,077 | 42.8% | 57.3% |
| Northeastern SHS Manchester | 1,189 | 39.1% | 63.7% |
| Mechanicsburg Area SHS Mechanicsburg | 1,412 | 36.8% | 57.5% |
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 Carlisle Area High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Cumberland County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 52.4% | #266 of 576 | #6 of 8 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 39.0% | #314 of 626 ▲ 2 | #7 of 8 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 63.4% | #264 of 626 ▼ 53 | #6 of 8 ▼ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,559 | #70 of 713 | #2 of 9 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.1:1 | #322 of 601 | #3 of 8 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 59.9% | #89 of 604 | #1 of 8 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 45.2% | #402 of 619 | #1 of 8 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +1.2% | #201 of 221 | N/A |
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
1,559
+28 (+2%) vs 2020
+113% since 1990-91, when it was 732
Student : Teacher
14.1:1
was 14.6:1
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 | 1,559 | 110.6 | 14.1:1 | 45% (704) |
| 2023-24 | 1,581 | 110.6 | 14.3:1 | 45% (704) |
| 2022-23 | 1,578 | 112.3 | 14.1:1 | 39% (618) |
| 2020-21 | 1,531 | 105 | 14.6:1 | 38% (584) |
| 2017-18 | 1,540 | 108 | 14.3:1 | 28% (425) |
| 2015-16 | 1,521 | 109 | 13.9:1 | 28% (421) |
| 2010-11 | 1,479 | 111 | 13.3:1 | 22% (325) |
| 2000-01 | 1,559 | 109 | 14.3:1 | 3% (46) |
| 1990-91 | 732 | 58 | 12.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Carlisle Area High School.
Since 2017-18: students up 1% (1,540 to 1,559); teachers up 2% (108 to 110.6).
About Carlisle Area High School
Carlisle Area High School is a large high school in Pennsylvania, with an address in Carlisle. School enrollment was 1,559 students in 2024-25, in grades 9 through 12. For comparison, high schools in Pennsylvania average about 738 students.
The district, Carlisle Area SD, has 5,087 students enrolled across 10 schools.
A majority of students at Carlisle Area High School, 60%, are White. The rest of enrollment is 12% Black, 11% Hispanic, 10% multiracial, and 5% Asian. Among all residents of Cumberland County, the White share is about 82%. By the diversity index, Carlisle Area High School comes in at 60%.
Carlisle Area High School employs 110.6 full-time-equivalent teachers. That gives a ratio of about 14.1:1. That ratio is over the 12.8:1 average for high schools in Pennsylvania. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was 45% in 2024-25.
allk12 grades Carlisle Area High School a B-. The grade compares the school only with Pennsylvania public high schools, because each state gives its own test.
The school's average proficiency rate on state tests is 52.4%. For its free or reduced-price lunch share, the predicted value is 58.3%.
Carlisle Area High School is located in Cumberland County, where median household income is about $87,494, 40% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 5% of people live in poverty. Federal data list 57 public schools in Cumberland County, with a combined enrollment of about 33,044.
Wilson Middle School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles away. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. Ranking the closest schools with test data puts Carlisle Area High School at 3rd of 9.
Federal data place Carlisle Area High School in the City: Small locale, which means it is inside a principal city with a population under 100,000.
Between 2020-21 and 2024-25, enrollment moved from 1,531 to 1,559, a small change.
Discussions about Carlisle Area High School may include school safety, transportation, and start times. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Cumberland County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
268,323
Census ACS
Median income
$87,494
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
40%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
57
33,044 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Carlisle Area SD
- Wilson Middle SchoolMiddle · 604 students
- Lamberton Middle SchoolMiddle · 583 students
- Crestview Elementary SchoolElementary · 541 students
- Bellaire Elementary SchoolElementary · 407 students
- Hamilton Elementary SchoolElementary · 388 students
- Mooreland Elementary SchoolElementary · 372 students
Other schools in Carlisle
- Wilson Middle SchoolMiddle · 604 students
- Lamberton Middle SchoolMiddle · 583 students
- Crestview Elementary SchoolElementary · 541 students
- Middlesex Elementary SchoolElementary · 419 students
- Bellaire Elementary SchoolElementary · 407 students
- Hamilton Elementary SchoolElementary · 388 students
Nearby schools
- Wilson Middle School0.3 mi · 604
- Bellaire Elementary School0.5 mi · 407
- Mooreland Elementary School0.8 mi · 372
- Hamilton Elementary School1.2 mi · 388
- Letort Elementary School1.3 mi · 225
- Crestview Elementary School1.4 mi · 541
Frequently asked questions
About Carlisle Area High SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Carlisle Area High School?
Carlisle Area High School enrolls approximately 1,559 students in grades 09-12.
What age range does Carlisle Area High School serve?
Carlisle Area High School serves students from grade 09 through grade 12.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Carlisle Area High School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Carlisle Area High School is approximately 14.1:1 (111 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Carlisle Area High School?
At Carlisle Area High School, the student body is approximately 60% White, 11% Hispanic, 12% Black, 5% Asian, 10% Two or more.
Is Carlisle Area High School public or private?
Carlisle Area High School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Carlisle Area SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.