Penn Wood MS

As a mid-sized middle-grades school in Darby, Pennsylvania, Penn Wood MS caters to 667 students from grades 7 through 8, run under William Penn SD.

William Penn SD runs 11 schools in total, collectively educating 4,499 students. Penn Wood MS is one of those campuses.

Looking at the student body, Penn Wood MS logs that 86% of students identify as Black, making the school strongly Black-majority; the rest consists of 5% multiracial, 4% Hispanic, 2% White. The wider county runs roughly 22% Black, putting the school's mix noticeably more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at school resources, Penn Wood MS shows 53 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 12.6:1. The state averages about 13.2:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. An estimated 95% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Delaware County (around 58%), the school's rate is meaningfully above typical.

With demographic context factored in, Penn Wood MS is in the bottom 10% of Pennsylvania public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 36.8%; Penn Wood MS posts 17.5%, -19.3 points below that line.

Around the school, Delaware County reports that the typical household earns roughly $89,546 per year, roughly 42% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Penn Wood MS is one of 113 public schools in Delaware County (combined enrollment of about 74,663 students).

The closest other public school is Walnut Street El Sch, roughly 0.4 miles away. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Penn Wood MS ranks 7th on composite proficiency, below the local average of 21.7%.

The school occupies an outer-ring site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count decreased 7%: 721 students in 2018 compared to 667 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share decreased from 92% to 86%.

Inside the community feed, recent activity here tends to focus on open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.