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What do you wish you knew before starting at Penn Wood MS?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
667
Middle
DISTRICT 409 · STATE 594
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·WILLIAM PENN SD·NCES 422639000943
Penn Wood Middle School
121 Summit St, Darby, PA 19023 · (610) 586-1804 · Delaware County
GRADES 07–08MIDDLE21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL667 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 6% of Pennsylvania public middle schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- DBeats 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
12.6:1
53 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 16.1:1 · STATE 13.2:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
95%
635 students
DISTRICT 102% · 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 7 | 359 | 54% |
| Grade 8 | 308 | 46% |
Student demographics
25%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 29% · 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
Feeds from
Based on grade levels within William Penn SD. Attendance zones can vary; confirm enrollment with the district.
Test scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
25.5%
PA avg 51.1% . -3.0pp since 2023
Math
7.0%
PA avg 43.0% . -0.3pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 26 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 7 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 3 points since 2023, while math scores have held steady.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 25.5% | 7.0% |
| 2023-24 | 28.5% | 7.3% |
% 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
UNDERPERFORMING
Bottom 10% of PA schools after controlling for student poverty
Actual proficiency
17.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
36.8%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-19.3pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 17% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 37% typical for Pennsylvania schools with a similar share of low-income students. BeatsExpectations compares each school with others at the same poverty level, not by raw scores, so a school lands here when its results trail those comparable schools, which is not the same as having low scores. A higher-scoring school can still fall in this tier if similar schools score higher still.
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 Middle School
Penn Wood Middle School's state test result (17.5% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penn Wood Middle School this school | 667 | 95.2% | 17.5% |
| Toby Farms Intermediate School Chester Twp | 359 | 87.5% | 7.2% |
| Tilden William T Middle School Philadelphia | 266 | 98.9% | 8.4% |
| Dickson Prep STEAM Academy Swissvale | 579 | 80.3% | 19.9% |
| Pittsburgh Allegheny 6-8 Pittsburgh | 179 | 97.8% | 19.3% |
| Science Leadership Academy Middle School Philadelphia | 353 | 99.7% | 40.8% |
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 Penn Wood Middle School ranks
Among middle schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Delaware County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 17.5% | #457 of 479 | #12 of 14 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 7.0% | #485 of 513 ▼ 3 | #13 of 14 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 25.5% | #460 of 513 ▲ 8 | #12 of 14 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 667 | #189 of 522 | #13 of 14 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.6:1 | #211 of 486 | #7 of 14 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 25.5% | #348 of 486 | #14 of 14 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 95.2% | #136 of 510 | #3 of 14 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -7.5% | #224 of 332 | #5 of 9 |
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
667
-34 (-5%) vs 2020
-21% since 2010-11, when it was 842
Student : Teacher
12.6:1
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 | 667 | 53 | 12.6:1 | 95% (635) |
| 2023-24 | 635 | 53 | 12.0:1 | 100% (635) |
| 2022-23 | 683 | 53 | 12.9:1 | 100% (683) |
| 2020-21 | 701 | 55 | 12.8:1 | 100% (698) |
| 2017-18 | 721 | 53.6 | 13.4:1 | 99% (717) |
| 2015-16 | 743 | 53 | 14.0:1 | 79% (589) |
| 2010-11 | 842 | 57 | 14.8:1 | 79% (669) |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Penn Wood Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students down 7% (721 to 667); teachers down 1% (53.6 to 53).
About Penn Wood Middle School
This page covers Penn Wood Middle School, a mid-sized middle school in Darby, Pennsylvania. The school teaches grades 7 through 8 and enrolls 667 students.
Penn Wood Middle School is one of 11 schools in William Penn SD, which enrolls 4,499 students in total.
The share of students at Penn Wood Middle School who are Black is 86%. The remaining students are 5% multiracial, 4% Hispanic, and 2% White. Among people living in Delaware County, the Black share is about 22%. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 25%.
Penn Wood Middle School has a student-to-teacher ratio of 12.6:1, with 53 full-time-equivalent teachers. The 13.2:1 average for middle schools in Pennsylvania is close to this figure. The school has 95% of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Public schools in Delaware County average 58%.
Among Pennsylvania public middle schools, Penn Wood Middle School outscored 6%, which works out to a D on the allk12 Grade.
The school's average proficiency rate across its state test results, 17.5%, is 19.3 points below the 36.8% the model predicts from its free or reduced-price lunch share. That result is in the bottom 10% of Pennsylvania schools.
American Community Survey estimates for Delaware County show that median household income comes to about $89,546, roughly 42% of adults have a four-year degree or more, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 7%. The county's public schools total 113, with about 74,663 students.
Measured in a straight line, Walnut Street Elementary School is about 0.4 miles from Penn Wood Middle School. Around the school, at least 8 other public schools are within five miles. Its average proficiency rate of 17.5% is below the 21.7% average for nearby schools.
Penn Wood Middle School has an NCES locale of Suburb: Large.
In 2020-21, Penn Wood Middle School enrolled 701 students. By 2024-25, that number had fallen to 667.
People can post here about special education services, counseling, and support programs and other school topics. Members of the school community can share what they know.
Delaware County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
579,222
Census ACS
Median income
$89,546
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
42%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
113
74,663 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in William Penn SD
- Penn Wood High SchoolHigh · 1,148 students
- Ardmore Avenue Elementary SchoolElementary · 535 students
- Penn Wood 9th Grade AcademyHigh · 379 students
- Park Lane Elementary SchoolElementary · 304 students
- W B Evans Elementary SchoolElementary · 304 students
- East Lansdowne Elementary SchoolElementary · 269 students
Other schools in Darby
- Park Lane Elementary SchoolElementary · 304 students
- Walnut Street Elementary SchoolElementary · 255 students
Nearby schools
- Walnut Street Elementary School0.4 mi · 255
- Park Lane Elementary School0.5 mi · 304
- Bell Avenue School0.5 mi · 265
- Colwyn Elementary School0.6 mi · 135
- Philadelphia Montessori CS0.7 mi · 226
- Southwest Leadership Academy CS0.8 mi · 670
Frequently asked questions
About Penn Wood Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Penn Wood Middle School?
Penn Wood Middle School enrolls approximately 667 students in grades 07-08.
What age range does Penn Wood Middle School serve?
Penn Wood Middle School serves students from grade 07 through grade 08.
How many students per teacher at Penn Wood Middle School?
Approximately 12.6:1 students per teacher at Penn Wood Middle School.
What is the student diversity at Penn Wood Middle School?
Student demographics at Penn Wood Middle School are roughly 2% White, 4% Hispanic, 86% Black, 2% Asian, 5% Two or more.
What district is Penn Wood Middle School in?
Penn Wood Middle School is part of William Penn SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.