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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Northern MS?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
757
Middle
DISTRICT 535 · STATE 594
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·NORTHERN YORK COUNTY SD·NCES 421776006346
Northern Middle School
655 S Baltimore St, Dillsburg, PA 17019 · (717) 432-8691 · York County
GRADES 06–08MIDDLE41-RURALREGULAR SCHOOL757 STUDENTS
C+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 36% of Pennsylvania public middle schools
- BTest 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 middle schools
Student : Teacher
14.8:1
51 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 13.7:1 · STATE 13.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
29%
220 students
DISTRICT 30% · 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 | 272 | 36% |
| Grade 7 | 255 | 34% |
| Grade 8 | 230 | 30% |
Student demographics
19%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 22% · 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
Northern Middle School→Northern High School
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within Northern York County SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
53.1%
PA avg 51.1% . -10.0pp since 2023
Math
34.6%
PA avg 43.0% . -1.6pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 53 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 35 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 | 53.1% | 34.6% |
| 2023-24 | 63.1% | 36.2% |
% 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
48.9%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
65.2%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-16.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 49% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 65% 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 Northern Middle School
Northern Middle School's state test result (48.9% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Middle School this school | 757 | 29.1% | 48.9% |
| Norwin Middle School North Huntingdon | 819 | 27.7% | 72.2% |
| Hillcrest Intermediate School North Huntingdon | 755 | 27.8% | 74.3% |
| West Allegheny Middle School Imperial | 796 | 27.8% | 74.0% |
| Canon-McMillan Middle School Canonsburg | 836 | 25.8% | 64.7% |
| Wendover Middle School Greensburg | 626 | 31.6% | 58.1% |
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 Northern Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In York County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 48.9% | #228 of 479 | #11 of 22 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 34.6% | #275 of 513 ▼ 18 | #15 of 22 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 53.1% | #238 of 513 ▼ 73 | #8 of 22 ▼ 5 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 757 | #137 of 522 | #5 of 24 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 14.8:1 | #392 of 486 | #13 of 24 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 18.8% | #396 of 486 | #23 of 24 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 29.1% | #413 of 510 | #21 of 22 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -1.0% | #316 of 332 | #14 of 14 |
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
757
+21 (+3%) vs 2020
+20% since 1990-91, when it was 629
Student : Teacher
14.8:1
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 | 757 | 51 | 14.8:1 | 29% (220) |
| 2023-24 | 747 | 50 | 14.9:1 | 29% (220) |
| 2022-23 | 751 | 52.3 | 14.4:1 | 26% (198) |
| 2020-21 | 736 | 51 | 14.4:1 | 24% (179) |
| 2017-18 | 765 | 52.1 | 14.7:1 | 24% (184) |
| 2015-16 | 724 | 52 | 13.9:1 | 25% (184) |
| 2010-11 | 737 | 54 | 13.7:1 | 18% (133) |
| 2000-01 | 803 | 46 | 17.5:1 | 9% (71) |
| 1990-91 | 629 | 41 | 15.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Northern Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 1% (765 to 757); teachers down 2% (52.1 to 51).
About Northern Middle School
Northern Middle School sits in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, and is classified as a middle school. The school offers grades 6 through 8 and enrolls 757 students. The school is 27% above the average for middle schools in Pennsylvania.
Northern Middle School is one of 6 schools in Northern York County SD, which enrolls 3,209 students in total.
By race and ethnicity, Northern Middle School is 90% White. Next come 4% Hispanic. The county population is about 81% White. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 19%.
A staff of 51 full-time-equivalent teachers puts the student-to-teacher ratio at 14.8:1. The gap from the 13.2:1 average for middle schools in Pennsylvania is 1.7 students per teacher. By family income, 29% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Among public schools in York County, the average eligibility rate is 53%.
On the allk12 Grade, Northern Middle School lands at C+, ahead of 36% of Pennsylvania public middle schools.
Northern Middle School's actual average proficiency rate across its state test results (48.9%) and its predicted rate (65.2%) put it outside the top and bottom 10% of Pennsylvania schools.
York County is the school's county. There, median household income comes to about $84,829, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 28%, and roughly 6% of residents are in poverty. There are 111 public schools in the county, enrolling about 64,242, Northern Middle School among them.
Northern Middle School's nearest public school is Northern High School (about 0.1 miles). In all, 4 other public schools sit within five miles of Northern Middle School. Among the 9 closest schools with test data, this one included, Northern Middle School ranks 9th on average proficiency.
The school's federal locale classification is Rural: Fringe.
From 2020-21 to 2024-25, enrollment rose from 736 to 757, a 3% increase.
This page collects posts and questions about Northern Middle School, such as fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
York County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
462,924
Census ACS
Median income
$84,829
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
28%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
6%
Below federal line
Schools in county
111
64,242 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Northern York County SD
- Northern High SchoolHigh · 982 students
- Dillsburg Elementary SchoolElementary · 440 students
- Northern Elementary SchoolElementary · 397 students
- South Mountain Elementary SchoolElementary · 389 students
- Wellsville CampusElementary · 244 students
Other schools in Dillsburg
- Northern High SchoolHigh · 982 students
- Dillsburg Elementary SchoolElementary · 440 students
- Northern Elementary SchoolElementary · 397 students
- South Mountain Elementary SchoolElementary · 389 students
Other Northern Middle schools
5 other US public schools in 4 states are named Northern Middle. Northern Middle School is the 3rd largest of the 6.
- Northern MiddleHagerstown, MD · 841 students
- Northern Middle SchoolSomerset, KY · 797 students
- Northern MiddleOwings, MD · 745 students
- Northern MiddleRoxboro, NC · 454 students
- Northern Middle SchoolAccident, MD · 305 students
Nearby schools
- Northern High School0.1 mi · 982
- Northern Elementary School0.2 mi · 397
- Dillsburg Elementary School0.8 mi · 440
- South Mountain Elementary School1.6 mi · 389
- Monroe Elementary School5.7 mi · 512
- Wellsville Campus5.8 mi · 244
Frequently asked questions
About Northern Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Northern Middle School?
Northern Middle School enrolls approximately 757 students in grades 06-08.
What age range does Northern Middle School serve?
Northern Middle School serves students from grade 06 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Northern Middle School?
Approximately 14.8:1 students per teacher at Northern Middle School.
What is the student diversity at Northern Middle School?
Student demographics at Northern Middle School are roughly 90% White, 4% Hispanic, 2% Black, 2% Asian, 2% Two or more.
Is Northern Middle School public or private?
Northern Middle School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Northern York County SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.