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What do students at Kensington Creative & Performing Arts HS actually talk about outside of class?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
510
High
DISTRICT 689 · STATE 738
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PHILADELPHIA CITY SD·NCES 421899000901
Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School
1901 N. Front St, Philadelphia, PA 19122 · (215) 400-7400 · Philadelphia County
GRADES 09–12HIGH11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL510 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 7% 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
16.6:1
31 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.7:1 · STATE 12.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
98%
499 students
DISTRICT 99% · 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 | 140 | 27% |
| Grade 10 | 142 | 28% |
| Grade 11 | 112 | 22% |
| Grade 12 | 116 | 23% |
Student demographics
57%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 71% · 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
36.6%
PA avg 51.1% . -2.0pp since 2023
Math
7.5%
PA avg 43.0% . +6.4pp 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 8 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 up about 6 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 36.6% | 7.5% |
| 2023-24 | 38.6% | 1.1% |
% 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
15.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
35.7%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-20.2pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 15% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 36% 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 Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School
Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School's state test result (15.5% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School this school | 510 | 97.8% | 15.5% |
| Mastbaum Jules E Area Vocational-Technical School Philadelphia | 651 | 90.3% | 20.1% |
| Frankford High School Philadelphia | 907 | 94.7% | 11.5% |
| Kensington Health Sciences Philadelphia | 457 | 98.2% | 28.4% |
| Edison HS/Fareira Skills Philadelphia | 983 | 90.2% | 14.9% |
| Harrisburg High School Harrisburg | 1,343 | 99.4% | 5.4% |
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 Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Philadelphia County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 15.5% | #542 of 576 | #38 of 57 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 7.5% | #573 of 626 ▲ 42 | #43 of 67 ▲ 21 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 36.6% | #529 of 626 ▲ 12 | #36 of 67 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 510 | #399 of 713 | #43 of 70 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.6:1 | #507 of 601 | #29 of 65 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 57.3% | #100 of 604 | #24 of 65 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 97.8% | #191 of 619 | #36 of 67 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +6.5% | #121 of 221 | #21 of 31 |
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
510
+1 (+0%) vs 2020
-7% since 2010-11, when it was 546
Student : Teacher
16.6:1
was 14.5:1
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 | 510 | 30.6 | 16.6:1 | 98% (499) |
| 2023-24 | 499 | 38.5 | 13.0:1 | 100% (499) |
| 2022-23 | 469 | 33.3 | 14.1:1 | 100% (468) |
| 2020-21 | 509 | 35 | 14.5:1 | 99% (506) |
| 2017-18 | 479 | 27.4 | 17.5:1 | 100% (479) |
| 2015-16 | 501 | 26 | 19.3:1 | 100% (501) |
| 2010-11 | 546 | 41 | 13.3:1 | 99% (543) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School.
Since 2017-18: students up 6% (479 to 510); teachers up 12% (27.4 to 30.6).
About Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School
Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School is a low-enrollment high school that serves part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It educates 510 students in grades 9 through 12. The school's enrollment is 31% smaller than the 738 average for high schools in Pennsylvania.
The district for Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School is Philadelphia City SD, with 220 schools and 116,230 students.
At 55%, Hispanic students outnumber all other groups at Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School combined. The school is also 35% Black, 5% White, and 4% multiracial. The Hispanic share of the county population is lower, at 16%. The chance that two students picked at random at Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 57%.
Its 30.6 full-time-equivalent teachers give the school a ratio of 16.6:1. That ratio is over the 12.8:1 average for high schools in Pennsylvania. Free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is 98%.
Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School is graded D by allk12, scoring above 7% of Pennsylvania public high schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
The BeatsExpectations model predicts 35.7% for Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School, given its share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The actual figure is 15.5%. The 20.2-point gap ranks in the bottom 10% of Pennsylvania schools.
Within Philadelphia County, median household income is about $61,953, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 35% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 17%. Federal data list 309 public schools in Philadelphia County, with a combined enrollment of about 182,005.
The closest other public school is Moffet John School, about 0.2 miles away. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. Among its closest neighbors with test data, Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School is 5th of 6 on proficiency.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is City: Large: inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
There was little change in enrollment from 2020-21 (509) to 2024-25 (510). From 2020-21 to 2024-25, the ratio rose from 14.5:1 to 16.6:1.
Threads on this page can be about enrollment questions, class placement, and PTA news. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Philadelphia County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,579,706
Census ACS
Median income
$61,953
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
35%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
17%
Below federal line
Schools in county
309
182,005 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Philadelphia City SD
- Northeast High SchoolHigh · 3,463 students
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,472 students
- Central High SchoolHigh · 2,329 students
- Northeast Community Propel AcademyElementary · 1,783 students
- Mayfair SchoolElementary · 1,763 students
- Washington George High SchoolHigh · 1,755 students
Other schools in Philadelphia
- Northeast High SchoolHigh · 3,463 students
- Philadelphia Performing Arts CSCombined · 2,572 students
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,472 students
- Central High SchoolHigh · 2,329 students
- MaST Community CS IICombined · 1,875 students
- First Philadelphia Preparatory CSCombined · 1,831 students
Nearby schools
- Moffet John School0.2 mi · 215
- Adaire Alexander School0.4 mi · 447
- Hackett Horatio B School0.4 mi · 413
- Penn Treaty School0.5 mi · 398
- Kensington Health Sciences0.5 mi · 457
- McKinley William School0.6 mi · 306
Frequently asked questions
About Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High SchoolHow many students attend Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School?
Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School enrolls approximately 510 students in grades 09-12.
What age range does Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School serve?
Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School serves students from grade 09 through grade 12.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School is approximately 16.6:1 (31 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School?
Student demographics at Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School are roughly 5% White, 55% Hispanic, 35% Black, 0% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Is Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School public or private?
Kensington Creative & Performing Arts High School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Philadelphia City SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.