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Which teacher or staff member at Mechanicsburg Area SHS deserves more recognition?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,412
High
DISTRICT 578 · STATE 738
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MECHANICSBURG AREA SD·NCES 421503005098
Mechanicsburg Area SHS
500 S Broad St, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 · (717) 691-4530 · Cumberland County
GRADES 09–12HIGH21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL1,412 STUDENTS
B
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 58% of Pennsylvania public high schools
- B+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- C+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 high schools
Student : Teacher
14.4:1
98 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.9:1 · STATE 12.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
37%
520 students
DISTRICT 40% · 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 | 368 | 26% |
| Grade 10 | 316 | 22% |
| Grade 11 | 382 | 27% |
| Grade 12 | 346 | 25% |
Student demographics
47%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 49% · 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
Based on grade levels within Mechanicsburg Area SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
70.5%
PA avg 51.1% . +3.3pp since 2023
Math
44.2%
PA avg 43.0% . +3.9pp 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 44 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 3 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 70.5% | 44.2% |
| 2023-24 | 67.2% | 40.3% |
% 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
57.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
61.8%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-4.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 58% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 62% 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 Mechanicsburg Area SHS
Mechanicsburg Area SHS's state test result (57.5% proficient) is higher than 1 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanicsburg Area SHS this school | 1,412 | 36.8% | 57.5% |
| Northeastern SHS Manchester | 1,189 | 39.1% | 63.7% |
| Hatboro-Horsham SHS Horsham | 1,336 | 37.6% | 60.7% |
| Plymouth-Whitemarsh SHS Plymouth Meeting | 1,637 | 31.9% | 80.5% |
| Quakertown Community High School Quakertown | 1,570 | 37.5% | 54.4% |
| Moon Area SHS Moon Township | 1,211 | 29.2% | 67.5% |
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 Mechanicsburg Area SHS ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Cumberland County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 57.5% | #195 of 576 | #4 of 8 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 44.2% | #249 of 626 ▲ 34 | #5 of 8 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 70.5% | #157 of 626 ▲ 58 | #3 of 8 ▲ 2 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,412 | #85 of 713 | #3 of 9 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.4:1 | #367 of 601 | #5 of 8 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 47.0% | #171 of 604 | #5 of 8 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 36.8% | #485 of 619 | #5 of 8 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +22.4% | #26 of 221 | N/A |
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
1,412
+193 (+16%) vs 2020
+39% since 1990-91, when it was 1,016
Student : Teacher
14.4:1
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 | 1,412 | 97.7 | 14.4:1 | 37% (520) |
| 2023-24 | 1,371 | 101.1 | 13.6:1 | 38% (520) |
| 2022-23 | 1,377 | 83.8 | 16.4:1 | 33% (454) |
| 2020-21 | 1,219 | 84 | 14.5:1 | 28% (339) |
| 2017-18 | 1,154 | 80.3 | 14.4:1 | 27% (313) |
| 2015-16 | 1,133 | 80 | 14.2:1 | 29% (323) |
| 2010-11 | 1,195 | 86 | 13.9:1 | 18% (215) |
| 2000-01 | 1,109 | 84 | 13.2:1 | 8% (89) |
| 1990-91 | 1,016 | 75 | 13.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Mechanicsburg Area SHS.
Since 2017-18: students up 22% (1,154 to 1,412); teachers up 22% (80.3 to 97.7).
About Mechanicsburg Area SHS
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is home to Mechanicsburg Area SHS, a large high school. Students in grades 9 through 12 attend the school, which enrolls 1,412 students. For comparison, high schools in Pennsylvania average about 738 students.
Mechanicsburg Area SHS is a school in Mechanicsburg Area SD. The district has 8 schools and 4,621 students.
At 71%, White students outnumber all other groups at Mechanicsburg Area SHS combined. The school is also 9% Black, 9% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, and 5% Asian. The White share of the county population is higher, at 82%. The chance that two students picked at random at Mechanicsburg Area SHS belong to different racial or ethnic groups, known as the diversity index, is 47%.
Federal data list 97.7 full-time-equivalent teachers at Mechanicsburg Area SHS in 2024-25, for a ratio of 14.4:1. Among high schools in Pennsylvania, the typical ratio is 12.8:1. The lunch program counts 37% of students at Mechanicsburg Area SHS as eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
Measured against Pennsylvania public high schools, Mechanicsburg Area SHS receives a B. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
The model predicts 61.8% for a school in Pennsylvania with Mechanicsburg Area SHS's free or reduced-price lunch share. Mechanicsburg Area SHS posts 57.5%.
Among Cumberland County residents, median household income is about $87,494, about 40% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and roughly 5% of residents are in poverty. Mechanicsburg Area SHS is one of 57 public schools in Cumberland County, which together enroll about 33,044 students.
The closest public school, Broad Street Elementary School, is about 0.2 miles from Mechanicsburg Area SHS. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. On state test proficiency, Mechanicsburg Area SHS ranks 7th in a group of 8 nearby schools.
Its NCES locale code is Suburb: Large: the school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
The number of students grew from 1,219 to 1,412 over 4 years.
Questions about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week can be posted here. Questions from prospective families are welcome too.
Cumberland County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
268,323
Census ACS
Median income
$87,494
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
40%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
5%
Below federal line
Schools in county
57
33,044 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Mechanicsburg Area SD
- Mechanicsburg Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,112 students
- Elmwood AcademyElementary · 712 students
- Kindergarten AcademyElementary · 321 students
- Upper Allen Elementary SchoolElementary · 321 students
- Shepherdstown Elementary SchoolElementary · 283 students
- Broad Street Elementary SchoolElementary · 239 students
Other schools in Mechanicsburg
- Cumberland Valley High SchoolHigh · 3,163 students
- Mountain View Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,403 students
- Mechanicsburg Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,112 students
- Eagle View Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,111 students
- Winding Creek Elementary SchoolElementary · 1,055 students
- Elmwood AcademyElementary · 712 students
Nearby schools
- Broad Street Elementary School0.2 mi · 239
- Elmwood Academy0.8 mi · 712
- Kindergarten Academy1.2 mi · 321
- Northside Elementary School1.2 mi · 221
- Mechanicsburg Middle School1.8 mi · 1,112
- Upper Allen Elementary School1.9 mi · 321
Frequently asked questions
About Mechanicsburg Area SHSHow large is Mechanicsburg Area SHS?
Mechanicsburg Area SHS enrolls approximately 1,412 students in grades 09-12.
What grades does Mechanicsburg Area SHS serve?
Mechanicsburg Area SHS serves grades 09-12.
How many students per teacher at Mechanicsburg Area SHS?
Approximately 14.4:1 students per teacher at Mechanicsburg Area SHS.
What is the racial breakdown of students at Mechanicsburg Area SHS?
At Mechanicsburg Area SHS, the student body is approximately 71% White, 9% Hispanic, 9% Black, 5% Asian, 5% Two or more.
Is Mechanicsburg Area SHS public or private?
Mechanicsburg Area SHS is a public K-12 school, overseen by Mechanicsburg Area SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.