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What's something Moon Area Lower MS does better than most schools?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
639
Middle
DISTRICT 630 · STATE 594
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·MOON AREA SD·NCES 421583007462
Moon Area Lower Middle School
904 Beaver Grade Road, Moon Township, PA 15108 · (412) 264-9440 · Allegheny County
GRADES 05–06MIDDLE21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL639 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 91% 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.
- 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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
12.5:1
51 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.0:1 · STATE 13.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
25%
159 students
DISTRICT 33% · 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 5 | 353 | 55% |
| Grade 6 | 286 | 45% |
Student demographics
43%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 47% · 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
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Moon Area SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
65.3%
PA avg 51.1% . -12.3pp since 2023
Math
68.2%
PA avg 43.0% . +4.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 65 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 68 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 12 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 65.3% | 68.2% |
| 2023-24 | 77.6% | 63.9% |
% 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
68.8%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
66.9%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+1.8pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 69% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 67% 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 Moon Area Lower Middle School
Moon Area Lower Middle School's state test result (68.8% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moon Area Lower Middle School this school | 639 | 24.9% | 68.8% |
| Moon Area Upper Middle School Moon Township | 621 | 27.4% | 63.5% |
| Perkiomen Valley MS-East Collegeville | 592 | 22.0% | 67.1% |
| Haine Middle School Cranberry Twp | 522 | 24.7% | 66.5% |
| Mount Nittany Middle School State College | 752 | 21.8% | 66.3% |
| Indian Valley Middle School Harleysville | 731 | 20.4% | 59.5% |
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 Moon Area Lower Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Allegheny County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 68.8% | #45 of 479 | #15 of 47 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 68.2% | #22 of 513 ▲ 8 | #8 of 51 ▲ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 65.3% | #108 of 513 ▼ 71 | #23 of 51 ▼ 9 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 639 | #210 of 522 | #19 of 51 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.5:1 | #198 of 486 | #24 of 46 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 42.8% | #212 of 486 | #20 of 46 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 24.9% | #437 of 510 | #35 of 51 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +2.6% | #102 of 131 | #13 of 18 |
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
639
+64 (+11%) vs 2020
Student : Teacher
12.5:1
was 12.8:1
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 | 639 | 51.2 | 12.5:1 | 25% (159) |
| 2023-24 | 609 | 47.1 | 12.9:1 | 26% (159) |
| 2022-23 | 623 | 46.8 | 13.3:1 | 30% (186) |
| 2020-21 | 575 | 45 | 12.8:1 | 26% (152) |
| 2017-18 | 623 | 46.2 | 13.5:1 | 22% (140) |
| 2015-16 | 562 | 46 | 12.2:1 | 22% (126) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Moon Area Lower Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students up 3% (623 to 639); teachers up 11% (46.2 to 51.2).
About Moon Area Lower Middle School
Moon Area Lower Middle School is a mid-sized middle school that serves part of Moon Township, Pennsylvania. The school has 639 students in 2024-25 across grades 5 through 6.
The district for Moon Area Lower Middle School is Moon Area SD, with 8 schools and 4,100 students.
The share of White students at Moon Area Lower Middle School is 74%, a majority. The school is also 8% Hispanic, 7% multiracial, 6% Asian, and 4% Black. Census estimates put Allegheny County at about 76% White, close to the school's figure. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 43%.
There are 51.2 full-time-equivalent teachers at Moon Area Lower Middle School, giving a ratio of 12.5:1. It is about the same as the 13.2:1 average for middle schools in Pennsylvania. By family income, 25% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That is lower than the 54% average for public schools in Allegheny County.
Among Pennsylvania public middle schools, Moon Area Lower Middle School outscored 91%, which works out to an A on the allk12 Grade.
Moon Area Lower Middle School sits between the top and bottom 10% of Pennsylvania schools on BeatsExpectations, with an actual average proficiency rate across its state test results of 68.8% and a predicted 66.9%.
American Community Survey estimates for Allegheny County show that the median household earns about $78,548 a year, about 46% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 7%. Across Allegheny County, 277 public schools serve about 141,392 students.
Moon Area Lower Middle School is less than a tenth of a mile from Moon Area Upper Middle School, its nearest public school. Within five miles are at least 8 other public schools. Its average proficiency rate of 68.8% is below the 74.1% average for nearby schools.
The federal government classifies Moon Area Lower Middle School's location as Suburb: Large.
The school's student count increased 11% between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 school years.
This page is a place to ask questions and share updates about open houses, carpools, and field trips at Moon Area Lower Middle School. Members of the school community can share what they know.
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 Moon Area SD
- Moon Area SHSHigh · 1,211 students
- Moon Area Upper Middle SchoolMiddle · 621 students
- Bon Meade Elementary SchoolElementary · 572 students
- J H Brooks Elementary SchoolElementary · 382 students
- Richard J. Hyde Elementary SchoolElementary · 237 students
- McCormick Elementary SchoolElementary · 229 students
Other schools in Moon Township
- Moon Area SHSHigh · 1,211 students
- Moon Area Upper Middle SchoolMiddle · 621 students
- Bon Meade Elementary SchoolElementary · 572 students
- J H Brooks Elementary SchoolElementary · 382 students
- Richard J. Hyde Elementary SchoolElementary · 237 students
- McCormick Elementary SchoolElementary · 229 students
Nearby schools
- Moon Area Upper Middle School0.0 mi · 621
- Moon Area SHS0.2 mi · 1,211
- J.A. Allard Elementary School1.2 mi · 209
- Richard J. Hyde Elementary School1.3 mi · 237
- J H Brooks Elementary School2.3 mi · 382
- Quaker Valley Middle School2.5 mi · 425
Frequently asked questions
About Moon Area Lower Middle SchoolHow many students attend Moon Area Lower Middle School?
Moon Area Lower Middle School enrolls approximately 639 students in grades 05-06.
Is Moon Area Lower Middle School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Moon Area Lower Middle School is a middle school covering grades 05-06.
How many teachers does Moon Area Lower Middle School have?
Moon Area Lower Middle School employs 51 FTE teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.5:1.
How diverse is Moon Area Lower Middle School?
Moon Area Lower Middle School reports a student body of 74% White, 8% Hispanic, 4% Black, 6% Asian, 7% Two or more.
What district is Moon Area Lower Middle School in?
Moon Area Lower Middle School is part of Moon Area SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.