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What's one thing Deer Lakes MS gets right about preparing students for what comes next?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
383
Middle
DISTRICT 422 · STATE 594
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DEER LAKES SD·NCES 420754000431
Deer Lakes Middle School
17 East Union Road, Cheswick, PA 15024 · (724) 265-5310 · Allegheny County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL383 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 55% of Pennsylvania public middle schools
- BTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- B-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
10.9:1
35 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.1:1 · STATE 13.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
45%
174 students
DISTRICT 42% · STATE 75%
Community
1
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 6 | 130 | 34% |
| Grade 7 | 137 | 36% |
| Grade 8 | 116 | 30% |
Student demographics
13%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 13% · 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
Deer Lakes Middle School→Deer Lakes High School
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Deer Lakes SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
55.8%
PA avg 51.1% . -0.7pp since 2023
Math
42.8%
PA avg 43.0% . -1.8pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 56 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 43 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 down about 2 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 55.8% | 42.8% |
| 2023-24 | 56.5% | 44.6% |
% 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
50.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
58.1%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-7.5pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 51% 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 Deer Lakes Middle School
Deer Lakes Middle School's state test result (50.7% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deer Lakes Middle School this school | 383 | 45.4% | 50.7% |
| Pine Grove Area Middle School Pine Grove | 411 | 47.0% | 38.0% |
| Bedford Middle School Bedford | 414 | 45.2% | 50.5% |
| Charles A Huston Middle School Lower Burrell | 399 | 42.6% | 35.3% |
| Everett Area Middle School Everett | 358 | 48.6% | 33.5% |
| Central Cambria Middle School Ebensburg | 347 | 42.9% | 57.1% |
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 Deer Lakes Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Allegheny County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 50.7% | #204 of 479 | #28 of 47 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 42.8% | #179 of 513 ▼ 17 | #26 of 51 ▲ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 55.8% | #203 of 513 ▲ 53 | #27 of 51 ▲ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 383 | #382 of 522 | #40 of 51 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 10.9:1 | #49 of 486 | #6 of 46 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 13.4% | #441 of 486 | #46 of 46 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 45.4% | #298 of 510 | #20 of 51 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -16.0% | #90 of 332 | #10 of 27 |
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
383
-64 (-14%) vs 2020
-22% since 2000-01, when it was 494
Student : Teacher
10.9:1
was 14.0:1
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 | 383 | 35.2 | 10.9:1 | 45% (174) |
| 2023-24 | 417 | 35.6 | 11.7:1 | 42% (174) |
| 2022-23 | 422 | 34.5 | 12.2:1 | 38% (160) |
| 2020-21 | 447 | 32 | 14.0:1 | 34% (154) |
| 2017-18 | 456 | 30 | 15.2:1 | 30% (135) |
| 2015-16 | 438 | 30 | 14.6:1 | 27% (118) |
| 2010-11 | 469 | 35 | 13.4:1 | 23% (110) |
| 2000-01 | 494 | 36 | 13.7:1 | 22% (109) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Deer Lakes Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 16% (456 to 383); teachers up 17% (30 to 35.2).
About Deer Lakes Middle School
Deer Lakes Middle School is a small middle school in Cheswick, Pennsylvania. The school had 383 students in grades 6 through 8 in 2024-25. Average enrollment for middle schools in Pennsylvania is about 594, so this school runs 36% smaller than that.
In Deer Lakes SD, 4 schools enroll a combined 1,689 students.
The large majority of students at Deer Lakes Middle School, 93%, are White. Next come 4% multiracial and 2% Hispanic. The county population is about 76% White. Deer Lakes Middle School has a diversity index of 13%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
The school's student-to-teacher ratio is about 10.9:1, with 35.2 full-time-equivalent teachers. Among middle schools in Pennsylvania, the typical ratio is 13.2:1. Lunch subsidy eligibility at Deer Lakes Middle School is 45%. On average, public schools in Allegheny County report 54%.
allk12 grades Deer Lakes Middle School a B. The grade compares the school only with Pennsylvania public middle schools, because each state gives its own test.
On a poverty-adjusted basis, Deer Lakes Middle School falls in the middle 80% of Pennsylvania schools: 50.7% actual against 58.1% predicted.
Allegheny County has about 1,238,177 residents, and median household income is about $78,548, about 46% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. Federal data list 277 public schools in Allegheny County, with a combined enrollment of about 141,392.
Of nearby public schools, East Union Intrmd School is the closest, at about 0.2 miles. The count of other public schools within five miles is 7. Among its closest neighbors with test data, Deer Lakes Middle School is 8th of 8 on proficiency.
Federal data place Deer Lakes Middle School in the Suburb: Large locale, which means it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
From 2020-21 to 2024-25, Deer Lakes Middle School went from 447 students to 383. The student-to-teacher ratio went down from 14.0:1 to 10.9:1.
If you have questions about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week at Deer Lakes Middle School, you can post them here. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Allegheny County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,238,177
Census ACS
Median income
$78,548
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
46%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
277
141,392 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Deer Lakes SD
- Deer Lakes High SchoolHigh · 581 students
- Curtisville Pri CenterElementary · 390 students
- East Union Intrmd SchoolElementary · 335 students
Other schools in Cheswick
- Deer Lakes High SchoolHigh · 581 students
- Acmetonia Elementary SchoolElementary · 458 students
- East Union Intrmd SchoolElementary · 335 students
Nearby schools
- East Union Intrmd School0.2 mi · 335
- Deer Lakes High School0.5 mi · 581
- Curtisville Pri Center1.5 mi · 390
- Dorseyville Middle School3.6 mi · 981
- Hartwood Elementary School3.6 mi · 386
- Poff Elementary School4.5 mi · 282
Frequently asked questions
About Deer Lakes Middle SchoolHow large is Deer Lakes Middle School?
Deer Lakes Middle School enrolls approximately 383 students in grades 06-08.
Is Deer Lakes Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Deer Lakes Middle School is a middle school covering grades 06-08.
How many teachers does Deer Lakes Middle School have?
Deer Lakes Middle School employs 35 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 10.9:1.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Deer Lakes Middle School?
At Deer Lakes Middle School, the student body is approximately 93% White, 2% Hispanic, 1% Black, 4% Two or more.
Who oversees Deer Lakes Middle School?
Deer Lakes Middle School is overseen by Deer Lakes SD in Allegheny County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.