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Honest take: what's the hardest part about being a student at Penn Trafford HS?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
1,167
High
DISTRICT 472 · STATE 738
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PENN-TRAFFORD SD·NCES 421866006648
Penn Trafford High School
3381 Route 130, Harrison City, PA 15636 · (724) 744-4471 · Westmoreland County
GRADES 09–12HIGH21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL1,167 STUDENTS
A+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 99% of Pennsylvania public high schools
- A+Test scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- ABeats 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
17.3:1
68 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.3:1 · STATE 12.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
25%
292 students
DISTRICT 27% · 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 | 284 | 24% |
| Grade 10 | 272 | 23% |
| Grade 11 | 306 | 26% |
| Grade 12 | 305 | 26% |
Student demographics
16%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 18% · 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
Based on grade levels within Penn-Trafford SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
90.5%
PA avg 51.1% . +2.1pp since 2023
Math
86.5%
PA avg 43.0% . +2.7pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 91 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 87 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 2 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 3 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 90.5% | 86.5% |
| 2023-24 | 88.4% | 83.8% |
% 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
OUTPERFORMING
Top 10% of PA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
87.0%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
66.9%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+20.2pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 87% of students here test proficient in math and reading, well above the roughly 67% typical for Pennsylvania schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations ranks schools against others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school can post high scores and still fall short of its prediction, or post lower scores and still beat it. This school clears its prediction by about 20 points, placing it in Pennsylvania's top 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 Penn Trafford High School
Penn Trafford High School's state test result (87.0% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penn Trafford High School this school | 1,167 | 25.0% | 87.0% |
| Northern High School Dillsburg | 982 | 23.4% | 55.4% |
| Red Land SHS Lewisberry | 1,061 | 28.6% | 59.2% |
| Bethel Park High School Bethel Park | 1,244 | 21.5% | 65.5% |
| Susquehannock High School Glen Rock | 857 | 27.9% | 64.3% |
| Plum SHS Plum | 1,220 | 31.8% | 54.7% |
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 Penn Trafford High School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Westmoreland County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 87.0% | #4 of 576 | #1 of 18 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 86.5% | #3 of 626 ▲ 3 | #1 of 18 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 90.5% | #17 of 626 ▲ 12 | #1 of 18 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 1,167 | #137 of 713 | #3 of 22 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.3:1 | #537 of 601 | #14 of 16 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 15.7% | #435 of 604 | #10 of 17 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 25.0% | #565 of 619 | #18 of 19 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -10.5% | #171 of 373 | #6 of 14 |
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
1,167
-143 (-11%) vs 2020
0% since 1990-91, when it was 1,164
Student : Teacher
17.3:1
was 18.7:1
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 | 1,167 | 67.5 | 17.3:1 | 25% (292) |
| 2023-24 | 1,212 | 70 | 17.3:1 | 24% (292) |
| 2022-23 | 1,263 | 73 | 17.3:1 | 19% (236) |
| 2020-21 | 1,310 | 70 | 18.7:1 | 15% (190) |
| 2017-18 | 1,304 | 73.4 | 17.8:1 | N/A |
| 2015-16 | 1,315 | 72 | 18.3:1 | 14% (181) |
| 2010-11 | 1,488 | 79 | 18.8:1 | 11% (160) |
| 2000-01 | 1,456 | 68 | 21.4:1 | 8% (115) |
| 1990-91 | 1,164 | 60 | 19.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Penn Trafford High School.
Since 2017-18: students down 11% (1,304 to 1,167); teachers down 8% (73.4 to 67.5).
About Penn Trafford High School
Penn Trafford High School is a high-enrollment high school found in Harrison City, Pennsylvania. The school enrolls 1,167 students, from grades 9 through 12. Average enrollment for high schools in Pennsylvania is about 738, so this school runs 58% bigger than that.
Penn Trafford High School belongs to Penn-Trafford SD, a district of 8 schools and 3,773 students.
Penn Trafford High School enrolls a student body that is 92% White. It is also 3% multiracial and 2% Hispanic. For comparison, Westmoreland County is about 92% White. By the diversity index, Penn Trafford High School comes in at 16%.
The school reports 67.5 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to about 17.3 students per teacher. The 12.8:1 average for high schools in Pennsylvania is lower than this school's figure. The free or reduced-price lunch share, often used to gauge student poverty, is 25%. That is 28 points below the 53% average for public schools in Westmoreland County.
Penn Trafford High School is graded A+ by allk12, scoring above 99% of Pennsylvania public high schools once test results, poverty-adjusted performance, and the recent trend are combined.
Schools in Pennsylvania with a similar free or reduced-price lunch share are predicted to post an average proficiency rate on state tests near 66.9%. Penn Trafford High School posts 87.0%, 20.2 points above that, which places it in the top 10% statewide on BeatsExpectations.
According to the American Community Survey, in Westmoreland County, median household income is about $74,109, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 33% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 7%. Penn Trafford High School is one of 85 public schools in Westmoreland County, which together enroll about 41,302 students.
Harrison Park Elementary School is the closest public school, about 0.6 miles away in a straight line. There are at least 8 more public schools inside five miles. By average proficiency, Penn Trafford High School is 1st among 9 schools close by.
The school's setting, by NCES definition, is Suburb: Large: in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
Penn Trafford High School saw enrollment fall 11% between 2020-21 and 2024-25. The number of students per teacher fell from 18.7 to 17.3 over 4 years.
The allk12 site hosts a discussion page for Penn Trafford High School covering things like school events, clubs, and volunteer needs. Reviews and ratings from people who know the school are welcome.
Westmoreland County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
352,500
Census ACS
Median income
$74,109
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
33%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
85
41,302 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Penn-Trafford SD
- Penn Middle SchoolMiddle · 518 students
- McCullough Elementary SchoolElementary · 448 students
- Sunrise Elementary SchoolElementary · 412 students
- Harrison Park Elementary SchoolElementary · 409 students
- Trafford Middle SchoolMiddle · 354 students
- Level Green Elementary SchoolElementary · 269 students
Nearby schools
- Harrison Park Elementary School0.6 mi · 409
- Penn Middle School0.8 mi · 518
- McCullough Elementary School1.0 mi · 448
- Sunrise Elementary School2.1 mi · 412
- Sheridan Terrace Elementary School2.7 mi · 417
- Jeannette McKee Elementary School3.3 mi · 504
Frequently asked questions
About Penn Trafford High SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Penn Trafford High School?
Penn Trafford High School enrolls approximately 1,167 students in grades 09-12.
Is Penn Trafford High School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Penn Trafford High School is a high school covering grades 09-12.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Penn Trafford High School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Penn Trafford High School is approximately 17.3:1 (68 FTE teachers).
How diverse is Penn Trafford High School?
Penn Trafford High School reports a student body of 92% White, 2% Hispanic, 1% Black, 1% Asian, 3% Two or more.
Is Penn Trafford High School public or private?
Penn Trafford High School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Penn-Trafford SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.