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How has Kernsville Sch changed in the last five years, for better or worse?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
512
Elementary
DISTRICT 481 · STATE 443
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PARKLAND SD·NCES 421851006801
Kernsville School
5051 Kernsville Rd, Orefield, PA 18069 · (610) 351-5840 · Lehigh County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL512 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 94% of Pennsylvania public elementary schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- A-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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
14.6:1
35 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.9:1 · STATE 13.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
26%
133 students
DISTRICT 34% · 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 | 71 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 80 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 96 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 96 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 93 | 18% |
| Grade 5 | 76 | 15% |
This year's kindergarten class (71) is 7% smaller than its 5th grade class (76).
Student demographics
56%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
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
71.1%
PA avg 51.1% . -10.0pp since 2023
Math
82.3%
PA avg 43.0% . -1.8pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 71 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 82 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 10 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 2 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 71.1% | 82.3% |
| 2023-24 | 81.1% | 84.1% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
80.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
66.5%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+14.0pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 80% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 66% 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 Kernsville School
Kernsville School's state test result (80.4% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 4 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kernsville School this school | 512 | 26.0% | 80.4% |
| Hershey Intrmd Elementary School Hershey | 479 | 26.7% | 77.0% |
| Rydal Elementary School Huntingdon Valley | 569 | 26.7% | 76.4% |
| McIntyre Elementary School Pittsburgh | 594 | 25.8% | 67.9% |
| Hershey Primary Elementary School Hershey | 427 | 29.0% | 78.0% |
| Hershey Early Childhood Center Hershey | 420 | 30.0% | N/A |
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 Kernsville School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Lehigh County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 80.4% | #99 of 1,396 | #2 of 43 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 82.3% | #79 of 1,511 ▼ 43 | #4 of 45 ▼ 3 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 71.1% | #196 of 1,511 ▼ 85 | #8 of 45 ▼ 5 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 512 | #499 of 1,638 | #20 of 50 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.6:1 | #1,187 of 1,528 | #33 of 48 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 56.3% | #405 of 1,531 | #16 of 48 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 26.0% | #1,377 of 1,600 | #43 of 48 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +32.0% | #38 of 450 | #3 of 23 |
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
512
+142 (+38%) vs 2020
-11% since 1990-91, when it was 577
Student : Teacher
14.6:1
was 11.6:1
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 | 512 | 35.1 | 14.6:1 | 26% (133) |
| 2023-24 | 475 | 35.3 | 13.5:1 | 28% (133) |
| 2022-23 | 447 | 32.7 | 13.7:1 | 24% (106) |
| 2020-21 | 370 | 32 | 11.6:1 | 18% (65) |
| 2017-18 | 388 | 29.7 | 13.1:1 | 20% (79) |
| 2015-16 | 416 | 29 | 14.3:1 | 22% (92) |
| 2010-11 | 499 | 32 | 15.6:1 | 15% (74) |
| 2000-01 | 645 | 36 | 17.9:1 | 7% (42) |
| 1990-91 | 577 | 34 | 17.0:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Kernsville School.
Since 2017-18: students up 32% (388 to 512); teachers up 18% (29.7 to 35.1).
About Kernsville School
Kernsville School runs as a medium-sized elementary school in Orefield, Pennsylvania. The school's 512 students are in kindergarten through 5.
Within Parkland SD, Kernsville School is one of 12 schools. The district enrolls 9,975 students.
White students are the majority at Kernsville School, with 63% of enrollment. It is also 14% Asian, 13% Hispanic, 6% multiracial, and 4% Black. That is close to the 62% White share among all Lehigh County residents. Pick two students at random and there is a 56% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
Staffing totals 35.1 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the student-to-teacher ratio is 14.6:1. On average, elementary schools in Pennsylvania have 13.1:1, compared with 14.6:1 here. The free or reduced-price lunch rate at Kernsville School is 26%. The rate at public schools in Lehigh County averages 70%, higher than here.
allk12 grades Kernsville School an A. The grade compares the school only with Pennsylvania public elementary schools, because each state gives its own test.
Given its share of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, Kernsville School would be expected to post about 66.5%. Its actual average proficiency rate on state tests is 80.4%.
County data help place the school in context: in Lehigh County, the median household income is $80,079, about 34% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 8% of residents are in poverty. In all, Lehigh County has 83 public schools and roughly 56,984 students.
Orefield Middle School is the closest public school, about 0.9 miles away in a straight line. Other public schools within five miles number at least 8. The nearest schools with test data average 67.5%, lower than Kernsville School's 80.4%.
NCES lists the school's locale as Suburb: Large. That means it sits in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Over 4 years, Kernsville School's enrollment climbed 38%, to 512. The number of students per teacher rose from 11.6 to 14.6 over 4 years.
The Kernsville School community page is open for posts about sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
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 Parkland SD
- Parkland High SchoolHigh · 3,279 students
- Springhouse Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,329 students
- Orefield Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,034 students
- Parkway Manor SchoolElementary · 569 students
- Kratzer SchoolElementary · 510 students
- Cetronia SchoolElementary · 496 students
Nearby schools
- Orefield Middle School0.9 mi · 1,034
- Lehigh Career and Technical Institute2.1 mi · 22
- Schnecksville School2.3 mi · 465
- Parkland High School2.6 mi · 3,279
- Ironton School2.7 mi · 417
- Springhouse Middle School3.2 mi · 1,329
Frequently asked questions
About Kernsville SchoolHow large is Kernsville School?
Kernsville School enrolls approximately 512 students in grades KG-05.
Is Kernsville School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Kernsville School is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
How many students per teacher at Kernsville School?
Approximately 14.6:1 students per teacher at Kernsville School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Kernsville School?
At Kernsville School, the student body is approximately 63% White, 13% Hispanic, 4% Black, 14% Asian, 6% Two or more.
Who oversees Kernsville School?
Kernsville School is overseen by Parkland SD in Lehigh County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.