1
What's the one class at Penn Wood El Sch every student should take?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
438
Elementary
DISTRICT 490 · STATE 443
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WEST CHESTER AREA SD·NCES 422529004813
Penn Wood Elementary School
1470 Johnny's Way, West Chester, PA 19382 · (484) 266-1900 · Chester County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL438 STUDENTS
B+
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 66% of Pennsylvania public elementary schools
- A-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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
13.8:1
32 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.7:1 · STATE 13.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
19%
82 students
DISTRICT 19% · STATE 75%
Community
1
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other elementary schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 61 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 67 | 15% |
| Grade 2 | 67 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 68 | 16% |
| Grade 4 | 89 | 20% |
| Grade 5 | 86 | 20% |
This year's kindergarten class (61) is 29% smaller than its 5th grade class (86).
Student demographics
35%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
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
63.8%
PA avg 51.1% . -9.8pp since 2023
Math
66.5%
PA avg 43.0% . -1.8pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 64 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 67 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 | 63.8% | 66.5% |
| 2023-24 | 73.6% | 68.3% |
% 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
70.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
69.6%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+1.1pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 71% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 70% 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 Penn Wood Elementary School
Penn Wood Elementary School's state test result (70.7% proficient) is higher than 0 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penn Wood Elementary School this school | 438 | 18.7% | 70.7% |
| Indian Lane Elementary School Media | 470 | 19.6% | 78.8% |
| Lincoln Elementary School Pittsburgh | 414 | 20.5% | 81.3% |
| Park Forest Elementary School State College | 419 | 18.6% | 75.3% |
| Howe Elementary School Pittsburgh | 398 | 17.1% | 80.6% |
| Salford Hills Elementary School Harleysville | 449 | 16.0% | 78.2% |
Matched among Pennsylvania elementary 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 Wood Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Chester County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 70.7% | #278 of 1,396 | #29 of 54 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 66.5% | #358 of 1,511 ▼ 80 | #38 of 56 ▼ 10 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 63.8% | #335 of 1,511 ▼ 89 | #33 of 56 ▼ 7 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 438 | #730 of 1,638 | #39 of 62 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.8:1 | #1,005 of 1,528 | #49 of 60 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 35.5% | #873 of 1,531 | #52 of 60 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 18.7% | #1,456 of 1,600 | #38 of 61 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -15.8% | #420 of 1,045 | #16 of 40 |
Ranked against other public elementary 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
438
-48 (-10%) vs 2020
-23% since 1990-91, when it was 567
Student : Teacher
13.8:1
was 15.7:1
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 | 438 | 31.8 | 13.8:1 | 19% (82) |
| 2023-24 | 448 | 32.2 | 13.9:1 | 18% (82) |
| 2022-23 | 463 | 33.1 | 14.0:1 | 15% (68) |
| 2020-21 | 486 | 31 | 15.7:1 | 13% (63) |
| 2017-18 | 520 | 34.1 | 15.3:1 | 14% (75) |
| 2015-16 | 543 | 34 | 16.0:1 | 9% (51) |
| 2010-11 | 525 | 35 | 15.0:1 | 9% (47) |
| 2000-01 | 558 | 33 | 16.9:1 | 8% (42) |
| 1990-91 | 567 | 34 | 16.7:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Penn Wood Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 16% (520 to 438); teachers down 7% (34.1 to 31.8).
About Penn Wood Elementary School
Penn Wood Elementary School is an elementary school in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and it is part of West Chester Area SD. It has an enrollment of 438 students in kindergarten through 5.
Penn Wood Elementary School is one of the 17 schools that make up West Chester Area SD (11,987 students in total).
The student body at Penn Wood Elementary School is 80% White. It is also 6% Asian, 5% multiracial, 5% Hispanic, and 5% Black. Among Chester County residents, the White share is about 77%. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 35, compared with 70 nationally.
Penn Wood Elementary School has 31.8 full-time-equivalent teachers on staff and a student-to-teacher ratio of 13.8:1. The average for elementary schools in Pennsylvania is about 13.1:1. The school has 19% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. The 38% average for public schools in Chester County is 19 points higher.
On the allk12 Grade, Penn Wood Elementary School lands at B+, ahead of 66% of Pennsylvania public elementary schools.
Penn Wood Elementary School's actual average proficiency rate across its state test results (70.7%) and its predicted rate (69.6%) put it outside the top and bottom 10% of Pennsylvania schools.
In the wider Chester County area, median household income comes to about $127,208, 57% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 4% of people live in poverty. Chester County's 111 public schools enroll about 83,468 students and include Penn Wood Elementary School.
Penn Wood Elementary School is about 1.7 miles from West Chester Bayard Rustin High School, its nearest public school. There are at least 8 other public schools within five miles. Ranking the closest schools with test data puts Penn Wood Elementary School at 3rd of 7.
The school's locale code, Suburb: Large, means it is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
In 2024-25, the school enrolled 438, down from 486 in 2020-21. The school's ratio dropped from 15.7:1 to 13.8:1 between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
On allk12, people connected to Penn Wood Elementary School can post about fundraisers, report cards, and school supplies. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Chester County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
547,840
Census ACS
Median income
$127,208
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
57%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
4%
Below federal line
Schools in county
111
83,468 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in West Chester Area SD
- West Chester Henderson High SchoolHigh · 1,444 students
- West Chester East High SchoolHigh · 1,216 students
- West Chester Bayard Rustin High SchoolHigh · 1,159 students
- E N Peirce Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,040 students
- J R Fugett Middle SchoolMiddle · 930 students
- Stetson Middle SchoolMiddle · 808 students
Other schools in West Chester
- Pennsylvania Leadership CSCombined · 2,874 students
- West Chester Henderson High SchoolHigh · 1,444 students
- West Chester East High SchoolHigh · 1,216 students
- West Chester Bayard Rustin High SchoolHigh · 1,159 students
- E N Peirce Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,040 students
- 21st Century Cyber CSHigh · 996 students
Nearby schools
- West Chester Bayard Rustin High School1.7 mi · 1,159
- Westtown-Thornbury Elementary School2.0 mi · 529
- Glen Acres Elementary School2.3 mi · 451
- West Chester East High School2.7 mi · 1,216
- J R Fugett Middle School2.7 mi · 930
- East Goshen Elementary School2.9 mi · 510
Frequently asked questions
About Penn Wood Elementary SchoolHow large is Penn Wood Elementary School?
Penn Wood Elementary School enrolls approximately 438 students in grades KG-05.
Is Penn Wood Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Penn Wood Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Penn Wood Elementary School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Penn Wood Elementary School is approximately 13.8:1 (32 FTE teachers).
What is the racial breakdown of students at Penn Wood Elementary School?
At Penn Wood Elementary School, the student body is approximately 80% White, 5% Hispanic, 5% Black, 6% Asian, 5% Two or more.
What district is Penn Wood Elementary School in?
Penn Wood Elementary School is part of West Chester Area SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.