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Alumni: what's one memory from Chicora El Sch that still sticks with you?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
645
Elementary
DISTRICT 412 · STATE 443
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·KARNS CITY AREA SD·NCES 420960001153
Karns City Area Elementary School
205 Kittanning Street, Chicora, PA 16025 · (724) 445-3680 · Butler County
GRADES KG–06ELEMENTARY42-RURALREGULAR SCHOOL645 STUDENTS
C-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 24% of Pennsylvania public elementary schools
- C+Test 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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
15.8:1
41 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.5:1 · STATE 13.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
35%
223 students
DISTRICT 45% · STATE 75%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 89 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 89 | 14% |
| Grade 2 | 96 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 91 | 14% |
| Grade 4 | 88 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 94 | 15% |
| Grade 6 | 98 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (89) is 9% smaller than its 6th grade class (98).
Student demographics
4%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 5% · 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
Karns City Area Elementary School→Karns City Jr/Sr High School
Based on grade levels within Karns City Area SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
51.5%
PA avg 51.1% . +0.3pp since 2023
Math
42.3%
PA avg 43.0% . +5.1pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 52 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 42 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Pennsylvania schools, those numbers are about 51 and 43. Reading and writing scores have held steady since 2023, while math scores are up about 5 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 51.5% | 42.3% |
| 2023-24 | 51.2% | 37.2% |
% 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
48.3%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
62.8%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-14.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 48% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 63% 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 Karns City Area Elementary School
Karns City Area Elementary School's state test result (48.3% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karns City Area Elementary School this school | 645 | 34.6% | 48.3% |
| Mohawk Elementary School New Castle | 709 | 36.2% | 66.7% |
| Cambria Elementary School Ebensburg | 542 | 36.7% | 61.3% |
| Knoch Primary School Saxonburg | 536 | 34.1% | 69.3% |
| Neshannock Memorial Elementary School New Castle | 688 | 29.5% | 67.2% |
| Frankstown Elementary School Hollidaysburg | 622 | 38.7% | 65.4% |
Matched among Pennsylvania elementary 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 Karns City Area Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Butler County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 48.3% | #913 of 1,396 | #18 of 19 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 42.3% | #966 of 1,511 ▲ 36 | #18 of 19 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 51.5% | #691 of 1,511 ▲ 199 | #16 of 19 ▲ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 645 | #188 of 1,638 | #5 of 20 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 15.8:1 | #1,368 of 1,528 | #18 of 20 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 3.7% | #1,520 of 1,531 | #19 of 20 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 34.6% | #1,258 of 1,600 | #11 of 20 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +34.9% | #27 of 450 | #2 of 10 |
Ranked against other public elementary 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
645
+228 (+55%) vs 2020
+20% since 1990-91, when it was 536
Student : Teacher
15.8:1
was 13.9:1
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 | 645 | 40.9 | 15.8:1 | 35% (223) |
| 2023-24 | 476 | 29.3 | 16.3:1 | 47% (223) |
| 2022-23 | 455 | 28.8 | 15.8:1 | 27% (123) |
| 2020-21 | 417 | 30 | 13.9:1 | 45% (186) |
| 2017-18 | 478 | 32.3 | 14.8:1 | 47% (224) |
| 2015-16 | 498 | 32 | 15.6:1 | 44% (220) |
| 2010-11 | 414 | 26 | 15.9:1 | 32% (131) |
| 2000-01 | 535 | 29 | 18.4:1 | 23% (124) |
| 1990-91 | 536 | 25 | 21.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Karns City Area Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students up 35% (478 to 645); teachers up 27% (32.3 to 40.9).
About Karns City Area Elementary School
Karns City Area Elementary School is an elementary school in Chicora, Pennsylvania, according to federal school records. The school serves 645 students in kindergarten through 6 in 2024-25. For comparison, elementary schools in Pennsylvania average about 443 students.
Karns City Area SD serves 1,465 students across 3 schools.
Federal enrollment data show Karns City Area Elementary School is 98% White. Pick two students at random and there is a 4% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
The school reports 40.9 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to about 15.8 students per teacher. That is 2.7 students per teacher above the 13.1:1 average for elementary schools in Pennsylvania. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility covers 35% of students. That tracks the 37% average for public schools in Butler County.
Measured against Pennsylvania public elementary schools, Karns City Area Elementary School receives a C-. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
After adjusting for student poverty, Karns City Area Elementary School lands between the top and bottom 10% of Pennsylvania schools. Its average proficiency rate on state tests is 48.3%; the prediction is 62.8%.
Federal survey data for Butler County show that the median household income is $89,843, 39% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 5% of people live in poverty. There are 39 public schools in Butler County, enrolling about 24,616 students in all.
Karns City Jr/Sr High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 2.7 miles away. The ten-mile area around Karns City Area Elementary School holds 4 other public schools. Ranking the closest schools with test data puts Karns City Area Elementary School at 7th of 9.
Federal records code the school's setting as Rural: Distant.
Federal counts for Karns City Area Elementary School: 417 students in 2020-21, 645 in 2024-25. A gap this wide can follow a change in the grades offered. The ratio was 13.9:1 in 2020-21 and 15.8:1 in 2024-25.
The allk12 site hosts a discussion page for Karns City Area Elementary School covering things like sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
Butler County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
197,254
Census ACS
Median income
$89,843
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
39%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
39
24,616 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Karns City Area SD
- Karns City Jr/Sr High SchoolHigh · 642 students
- Sugarcreek Elementary SchoolElementary · 178 students
Nearby schools
- Karns City Jr/Sr High School2.7 mi · 642
- Sugarcreek Elementary School7.2 mi · 178
- Dassa McKinney Elementary School8.2 mi · 581
- Summit Township Elementary School8.9 mi · 259
- Emily Brittain Elementary School10.2 mi · 255
- Center Township Elementary School10.4 mi · 584
Frequently asked questions
About Karns City Area Elementary SchoolHow large is Karns City Area Elementary School?
Karns City Area Elementary School enrolls approximately 645 students in grades KG-06.
What age range does Karns City Area Elementary School serve?
Karns City Area Elementary School serves students from grade KG through grade 06.
How many students per teacher at Karns City Area Elementary School?
Approximately 15.8:1 students per teacher at Karns City Area Elementary School.
How diverse is Karns City Area Elementary School?
Karns City Area Elementary School reports a student body of 98% White, 0% Hispanic, 0% Black, 0% Asian, 1% Two or more.
Is Karns City Area Elementary School public or private?
Karns City Area Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Karns City Area SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.