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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,066
Middle
DISTRICT 1,062 · STATE 594
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·DOWNINGTOWN AREA SD·NCES 420771007539
Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center
489 Dorlan Mill Road, Downingtown, PA 19335 · (610) 269-8460 · Chester County
GRADES 06–06MIDDLE21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL1,066 STUDENTS
A-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 81% of Pennsylvania public middle schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- BBeats 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
13.4:1
80 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.4:1 · STATE 13.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
15%
162 students
DISTRICT 15% · 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 | 1,066 | 100% |
Student demographics
54%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 53% · 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
Feeds from
Beaver Creek Elementary SchoolKG–05Bradford Hgts Elementary SchoolKG–05Brandywine-Wallace Elementary SchoolKG–05East Ward Elementary SchoolKG–05Lionville Elementary SchoolKG–05Pickering Valley Elementary SchoolKG–05Shamona Creek Elementary SchoolKG–05Springton Manor Elementary SchoolKG–05Uwchlan Hills Elementary SchoolKG–05West Bradford Elementary SchoolKG–05
Based on grade levels within Downingtown Area SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
73.1%
PA avg 51.1% . +5.6pp since 2023
Math
66.3%
PA avg 43.0% . +8.4pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 73 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 66 of 100 do math at grade level. Across all Pennsylvania schools, those numbers are about 51 and 43. Reading and writing scores are up about 6 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 8 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 73.1% | 66.3% |
| 2023-24 | 67.5% | 57.9% |
% 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
66.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
71.1%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.9pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 66% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 71% 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 Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center
Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center's state test result (66.2% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center this school | 1,066 | 15.2% | 66.2% |
| Garnet Valley Middle School Glen Mills | 1,086 | 13.4% | 70.1% |
| South Fayette Middle School McDonald | 859 | 14.1% | 76.6% |
| Unami Middle School Chalfont | 784 | 9.2% | 71.0% |
| Pennbrook Middle School North Wales | 767 | 22.6% | 64.6% |
| Eagle View Middle School Mechanicsburg | 1,111 | 28.8% | 68.7% |
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 Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Chester County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 66.2% | #61 of 479 | #5 of 18 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 66.3% | #31 of 513 ▲ 24 | #4 of 19 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 73.1% | #53 of 513 ▲ 64 | #4 of 19 ▲ 6 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,066 | #39 of 522 | #4 of 21 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.4:1 | #286 of 486 | #15 of 21 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 54.2% | #131 of 486 | #12 of 21 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 15.2% | #483 of 510 | #15 of 19 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -2.6% | #292 of 332 | #9 of 11 |
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
1,066
-13 (-1%) vs 2020
Student : Teacher
13.4:1
was 14.4:1
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 | 1,066 | 79.6 | 13.4:1 | 15% (162) |
| 2023-24 | 1,036 | 77.3 | 13.4:1 | 16% (162) |
| 2022-23 | 1,046 | 78.4 | 13.3:1 | 13% (137) |
| 2020-21 | 1,079 | 75 | 14.4:1 | 9% (100) |
| 2017-18 | 1,095 | 72.9 | 15.0:1 | 10% (110) |
| 2015-16 | 985 | 71 | 13.9:1 | 11% (110) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center.
Since 2017-18: students down 3% (1,095 to 1,066); teachers up 9% (72.9 to 79.6).
About Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center
Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center is a middle school in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, according to federal school records. It educates 1,066 students in grade 6. The typical figure for middle schools in Pennsylvania is about 594 students.
The district, Downingtown Area SD, operates 16 schools serving 13,047 students.
White students account for 63% of enrollment at Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center. Smaller groups are 25% Asian, 6% multiracial, 5% Hispanic, and 2% Black. For comparison, the population of Chester County is roughly 77% White. Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center has a diversity index of 54%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center operates with 79.6 full-time-equivalent teachers, a ratio of about 13.4:1. Across middle schools in Pennsylvania, the average ratio is about 13.2:1. Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center reports 15% of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. That is 23 points below the 38% average for public schools in Chester County.
allk12 grades Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center an A-. The grade compares the school only with Pennsylvania public middle schools, because each state gives its own test.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 71.1% for Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center. The school posts 66.2%, 4.9 points below the prediction.
Recent Census Bureau figures for Chester County show that median household income is about $127,208, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 57%, and about 4% of people live in poverty. Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center is one of 111 public schools in Chester County, which together enroll about 83,468 students.
The nearest public school is Shamona Creek Elementary School, at about 0.1 miles. Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center has at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Among 7 nearby schools that report test results, Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center ranks 6th on proficiency.
Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center is coded as Suburb: Large in federal locale data.
Enrollment in 2024-25 was 1,066, close to the 1,079 recorded in 2020-21. Students per teacher fell from 14.4 in 2020-21 to 13.4 in 2024-25.
Topics for discussion here include sports tryouts, band and choir, and theater. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Chester County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
547,840
Census ACS
Median income
$127,208
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
57%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
4%
Below federal line
Schools in county
111
83,468 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Downingtown Area SD
- Downingtown HS West CampusHigh · 1,796 students
- Downingtown HS East CampusHigh · 1,708 students
- Downingtown Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,074 students
- Lionville Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,045 students
- Downingtown STEM AcademyHigh · 962 students
- Lionville Elementary SchoolElementary · 668 students
Other schools in Downingtown
- Downingtown HS West CampusHigh · 1,796 students
- Downingtown Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,074 students
- Downingtown STEM AcademyHigh · 962 students
- Lionville Elementary SchoolElementary · 668 students
- West Bradford Elementary SchoolElementary · 623 students
- East Ward Elementary SchoolElementary · 549 students
Nearby schools
- Shamona Creek Elementary School0.1 mi · 488
- Insight PA Cyber CS1.6 mi · 3,385
- Pickering Valley Elementary School1.9 mi · 423
- Uwchlan Hills Elementary School1.9 mi · 537
- Lionville Middle School2.3 mi · 1,045
- Lionville Elementary School2.3 mi · 668
Frequently asked questions
About Marsh Creek Sixth Grade CenterHow large is Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center?
Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center enrolls approximately 1,066 students in grades 06-06.
What grades does Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center serve?
Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center serves grades 06-06.
How many students per teacher at Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center?
Approximately 13.4:1 students per teacher at Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center.
How diverse is Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center?
Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center reports a student body of 63% White, 5% Hispanic, 2% Black, 25% Asian, 6% Two or more.
What district is Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center in?
Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center is part of Downingtown Area SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.