Penn-Lincoln El Sch

Penn-Lincoln El Sch is one of the modestly sized K-5 schools in Altoona, Pennsylvania, operated by Altoona Area SD, with 313 students on its rolls from grades K through 5. Compared to the state average of about 443 students per school, that is 29% smaller than typical.

Altoona Area SD runs 10 schools in total, collectively educating 6,852 students. Penn-Lincoln El Sch is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, Penn-Lincoln El Sch lists that 71% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder consists of 13% Black, 9% multiracial, 4% Hispanic. That is considerably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 92%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Penn-Lincoln El Sch logs 36 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 8.6:1. The state averages around 13.1:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 99% of students at Penn-Lincoln El Sch qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is higher than Blair County's rate of about 74%.

With demographic context factored in, Penn-Lincoln El Sch performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 35.1%, the actual is 30.5%, a residual of -4.7 points.

Zooming out to the county, Blair County reports that the typical household earns roughly $62,382 per year, about 24% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 8% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Blair County runs 33 public schools (combined enrollment of about 15,692 students), of which Penn-Lincoln El Sch is one.

The closest other public school is Altoona Area HS, roughly 0.2 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around Penn-Lincoln El Sch. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Penn-Lincoln El Sch ranks 8th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 54.2%.

The school occupies a high-density site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Penn-Lincoln El Sch has shrank 29%, going from 439 students in 2018 to 313 in 2025. The White share of enrollment shrank from 79% to 71% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 11.5:1 in 2018 to 8.6:1 in 2025.

Within the allk12 community for this school, members of the Penn-Lincoln El Sch community share and discuss open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.