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Alumni: what's one memory from Ritter El Sch that still sticks with you?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
463
Elementary
DISTRICT 497 · STATE 443
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·ALLENTOWN CITY SD·NCES 420228002781
Ritter Elementary School
790 N Plymouth Street, Allentown, PA 18109 · (484) 765-5661 · Lehigh County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY12-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL463 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 13% of Pennsylvania public elementary 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 elementary schools
Student : Teacher
16.8:1
28 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 15.5:1 · STATE 13.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
92%
426 students
DISTRICT 102% · 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 | 74 | 16% |
| Grade 1 | 116 | 25% |
| Grade 2 | 71 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 77 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 65 | 14% |
| Grade 5 | 60 | 13% |
This year's kindergarten class (74) is 23% larger than its 5th grade class (60).
Student demographics
55%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 43% · 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
18.4%
PA avg 51.1% . -10.9pp since 2023
Math
16.6%
PA avg 43.0% . -7.0pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 18 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 17 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 11 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 7 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 18.4% | 16.6% |
| 2023-24 | 29.3% | 23.6% |
% 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
25.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
38.2%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-12.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 25% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 38% 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 Ritter Elementary School
Ritter Elementary School's state test result (25.4% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ritter Elementary School this school | 463 | 92.0% | 25.4% |
| Dodson Elementary School Wilkes Barre | 522 | 92.5% | 29.1% |
| Muhlenberg Elementary School Allentown | 606 | 97.5% | 31.2% |
| Whitehall Elementary School Norristown | 503 | 98.6% | 32.5% |
| Donegan Elementary School Bethlehem | 467 | 92.5% | 20.6% |
| Freemansburg Elementary School Freemansburg | 328 | 91.2% | 21.5% |
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 Ritter Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Lehigh County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 25.4% | #1,234 of 1,396 | #34 of 43 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 16.6% | #1,332 of 1,511 ▼ 112 | #41 of 45 ▼ 7 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 18.4% | #1,377 of 1,511 ▼ 87 | #36 of 45 no change |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 463 | #646 of 1,638 | #28 of 50 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 16.8:1 | #1,453 of 1,528 | #47 of 48 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 54.6% | #448 of 1,531 | #20 of 48 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 92.0% | #632 of 1,600 | #21 of 48 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -23.3% | #206 of 1,045 | #2 of 23 |
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
463
+36 (+8%) vs 2020
-1% since 1990-91, when it was 469
Student : Teacher
16.8:1
was 15.8:1
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 | 463 | 27.5 | 16.8:1 | 92% (426) |
| 2023-24 | 426 | 30.6 | 13.9:1 | 100% (426) |
| 2022-23 | 409 | 29 | 14.1:1 | 100% (409) |
| 2020-21 | 427 | 27 | 15.8:1 | 99% (424) |
| 2017-18 | 604 | 30.8 | 19.6:1 | 100% (604) |
| 2015-16 | 438 | 25 | 17.5:1 | 60% (263) |
| 2010-11 | 573 | 30 | 19.1:1 | 77% (439) |
| 2000-01 | 497 | 23 | 21.6:1 | 43% (212) |
| 1990-91 | 469 | 23 | 20.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Ritter Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 23% (604 to 463); teachers down 11% (30.8 to 27.5).
About Ritter Elementary School
Ritter Elementary School is a medium-sized elementary school in Allentown, Pennsylvania, one of the schools in Allentown City SD. The school serves 463 students in kindergarten through 5 in 2024-25.
Ritter Elementary School is part of Allentown City SD, where 23 schools serve 16,674 students.
Roughly 65% of students at Ritter Elementary School are Hispanic. Other reported shares: 12% White, 11% Black, and 10% multiracial. Lehigh County's residents are about 28% Hispanic, 37 points below the school's share. The school's diversity index is 55%, meaning two students picked at random have a 55% chance of belonging to different racial or ethnic groups.
Staffing totals 27.5 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the student-to-teacher ratio is 16.8:1. On average, elementary schools in Pennsylvania have 13.1:1, compared with 16.8:1 here. The free or reduced-price lunch rate at Ritter Elementary School is 92%. That is 22 points above the 70% average for public schools in Lehigh County.
Measured against Pennsylvania public elementary schools, Ritter Elementary School receives a D. The grade weighs proficiency most heavily, then how results compare with what the school's low-income share predicts, then the three-year change.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 38.2% for Ritter Elementary School. The school posts 25.4%, 12.7 points below the prediction.
Ritter Elementary School is located in Lehigh County, where the median household income is $80,079, about 34% of adults have at least a bachelor's degree, and the poverty rate is about 8%. Besides Ritter Elementary School, Lehigh County has 82 other public schools.
The next-closest public school is Lincoln Leadership Academy CS, about 0.1 miles away. Ritter Elementary School is one of several public schools in the area, with at least 8 others within five miles. Ranking the closest schools with test data puts Ritter Elementary School at 3rd of 8.
Its location is classified as City: Mid-size by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Ritter Elementary School's enrollment climbed from 427 in 2020-21 to 463 in 2024-25. Students per teacher rose from 15.8 in 2020-21 to 16.8 in 2024-25.
Discussions about Ritter Elementary School may include science fairs, picture day, and bus routes. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
Lehigh County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
378,792
Census ACS
Median income
$80,079
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
34%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
8%
Below federal line
Schools in county
83
56,984 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Allentown City SD
- William Allen High SchoolHigh · 3,074 students
- Louis E Dieruff High SchoolHigh · 1,914 students
- South Mountain Middle SchoolMiddle · 972 students
- Francis D Raub Middle SchoolMiddle · 876 students
- Brigadier General Anna Mae Hays Elementary SchoolElementary · 807 students
- Trexler Middle SchoolMiddle · 771 students
Other schools in Allentown
- Parkland High SchoolHigh · 3,279 students
- William Allen High SchoolHigh · 3,074 students
- Louis E Dieruff High SchoolHigh · 1,914 students
- Executive Education Academy CSCombined · 1,497 students
- Springhouse Middle SchoolMiddle · 1,329 students
- Lincoln Leadership Academy CSCombined · 973 students
Other Ritter Elementary schools
One other US public school is named Ritter Elementary. Ritter Elementary School is the largest of the 2.
- Ritter ElementaryLos Angeles, CA · 307 students
Nearby schools
- Lincoln Leadership Academy CS0.1 mi · 973
- Louis E Dieruff High School0.4 mi · 1,914
- Sonia Sotomayor Dual Lang Immersion Academy0.7 mi · 112
- Executive Education Academy CS1.1 mi · 1,497
- Mosser Elementary School1.1 mi · 551
- Clearview Elementary School1.4 mi · 384
Frequently asked questions
About Ritter Elementary SchoolHow many students attend Ritter Elementary School?
Ritter Elementary School enrolls approximately 463 students in grades KG-05.
Is Ritter Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
Ritter Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades KG-05.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Ritter Elementary School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Ritter Elementary School is approximately 16.8:1 (28 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at Ritter Elementary School?
Student demographics at Ritter Elementary School are roughly 12% White, 65% Hispanic, 11% Black, 2% Asian, 10% Two or more.
Is Ritter Elementary School public or private?
Ritter Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Allentown City SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.