Enrollment
328
Elementary
DISTRICT 474 · STATE 443
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PHILADELPHIA CITY SD·NCES 421899006539
Samuel Pennypacker School
1858 East Washington Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19138 · (215) 400-3510 · Philadelphia County
GRADES PK–08ELEMENTARY11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL328 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 5% 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
12.4:1
26 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.6:1 · STATE 13.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
99%
325 students
DISTRICT 99% · STATE 75%
Community
0
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 29 | 9% |
| Kindergarten | 33 | 10% |
| Grade 1 | 31 | 9% |
| Grade 2 | 36 | 11% |
| Grade 3 | 40 | 12% |
| Grade 4 | 38 | 12% |
| Grade 5 | 30 | 9% |
| Grade 6 | 37 | 11% |
| Grade 7 | 22 | 7% |
| Grade 8 | 32 | 10% |
This year's kindergarten class (33) is about the same size as its 8th grade class (32).
Student demographics
16%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 71% · 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
16.3%
PA avg 51.1% . -6.7pp since 2023
Math
7.6%
PA avg 43.0% . +2.9pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 16 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 8 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 7 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 3 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 16.3% | 7.6% |
| 2023-24 | 23.0% | 4.7% |
% 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
14.4%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
35.1%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-20.7pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 14% of students here test proficient in math and reading, below the roughly 35% 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 Samuel Pennypacker School
Samuel Pennypacker School's state test result (14.4% proficient) is higher than 4 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel Pennypacker School this school | 328 | 99.1% | 14.4% |
| Blaine James G School Philadelphia | 332 | 97.3% | 6.3% |
| Propel CS-Northside Pittsburgh | 316 | 99.1% | 13.5% |
| Lamberton Robert E School Philadelphia | 341 | 95.0% | 9.8% |
| McMichael Morton School Philadelphia | 285 | 98.2% | 10.0% |
| Kelly John B School Philadelphia | 365 | 96.4% | 22.1% |
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 Samuel Pennypacker School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Philadelphia County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 14.4% | #1,340 of 1,396 | #125 of 161 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 7.6% | #1,452 of 1,511 ▲ 16 | #154 of 193 ▲ 4 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 16.3% | #1,411 of 1,511 ▼ 43 | #141 of 193 ▼ 24 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 328 | #1,144 of 1,638 | #143 of 194 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 12.4:1 | #571 of 1,528 | #76 of 189 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 16.4% | #1,267 of 1,531 | #155 of 189 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 99.1% | #376 of 1,600 | #91 of 193 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -18.0% | #348 of 1,045 | #94 of 135 |
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
328
-16 (-5%) vs 2020
-58% since 1990-91, when it was 772
Student : Teacher
12.4:1
was 12.3:1
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 | 328 | 26.4 | 12.4:1 | 99% (325) |
| 2023-24 | 324 | 27.3 | 11.9:1 | N/A |
| 2022-23 | 348 | 25.3 | 13.8:1 | 100% (348) |
| 2020-21 | 344 | 28 | 12.3:1 | 99% (341) |
| 2017-18 | 400 | 26.6 | 15.0:1 | 100% (399) |
| 2015-16 | 381 | 24 | 15.9:1 | 100% (381) |
| 2010-11 | 520 | 32 | 16.3:1 | 93% (481) |
| 2000-01 | 555 | 29 | 19.1:1 | 81% (449) |
| 1990-91 | 772 | 38 | 20.3:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Samuel Pennypacker School.
Since 2017-18: students down 18% (400 to 328); teachers down 1% (26.6 to 26.4).
About Samuel Pennypacker School
Samuel Pennypacker School sits in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is classified as an elementary school. The latest federal count shows 328 students in pre-K through 8. Against the 443-student average for elementary schools in Pennsylvania, enrollment here is 26% lower.
Philadelphia City SD is responsible for 220 schools, Samuel Pennypacker School included, with 116,230 students in all.
Most students at Samuel Pennypacker School are Black: 91% of enrollment. Other groups make up 7% Hispanic. Philadelphia County as a whole is about 39% Black, so the school's share is higher. Samuel Pennypacker School has a diversity index of 16%, compared with 70% for all US public school students.
Samuel Pennypacker School operates with 26.4 full-time-equivalent teachers, a ratio of about 12.4:1. Elementary schools in Pennsylvania have a similar average ratio of 13.1:1. About 99% of students at the school meet free or reduced-price lunch income limits.
Measured against Pennsylvania public elementary schools, Samuel Pennypacker 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.
Samuel Pennypacker School posts an average proficiency rate on state tests of 14.4%. Schools with its free or reduced-price lunch share in Pennsylvania are predicted to post 35.1%, so the school is 20.7 points behind and in the state's bottom 10%.
Philadelphia County has about 1,579,706 residents, and median household income is about $61,953, 35% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and about 17% of people live in poverty. The public schools of Philadelphia County number 309 and enroll about 182,005.
West Oak Lane CS is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles away. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. Local comparison: Samuel Pennypacker School ranks 5th of 7 nearby schools, at 14.4% versus a 22.3% average.
NCES lists the school's locale as City: Large. That means it sits inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more.
The 2024-25 enrollment of 328 was 5% lower than in 2020-21, when it was 344.
If you have questions about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week at Samuel Pennypacker School, you can post them here. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.
Philadelphia County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
1,579,706
Census ACS
Median income
$61,953
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
35%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
17%
Below federal line
Schools in county
309
182,005 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Philadelphia City SD
- Northeast High SchoolHigh · 3,463 students
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,472 students
- Central High SchoolHigh · 2,329 students
- Northeast Community Propel AcademyElementary · 1,783 students
- Mayfair SchoolElementary · 1,763 students
- Washington George High SchoolHigh · 1,755 students
Other schools in Philadelphia
- Northeast High SchoolHigh · 3,463 students
- Philadelphia Performing Arts CSCombined · 2,572 students
- Lincoln High SchoolHigh · 2,472 students
- Central High SchoolHigh · 2,329 students
- MaST Community CS IICombined · 1,875 students
- First Philadelphia Preparatory CSCombined · 1,831 students
Nearby schools
- West Oak Lane CS0.5 mi · 955
- King Martin Luther High School0.6 mi · 527
- Day Anna B School0.7 mi · 314
- Parkway Northwest0.7 mi · 238
- Rowen William School0.7 mi · 296
- Franklin S Edmonds School0.8 mi · 391
Frequently asked questions
About Samuel Pennypacker SchoolHow large is Samuel Pennypacker School?
Samuel Pennypacker School enrolls approximately 328 students in grades PK-08.
What grades does Samuel Pennypacker School serve?
Samuel Pennypacker School serves grades PK-08.
What is the student-teacher ratio at Samuel Pennypacker School?
The student-to-teacher ratio at Samuel Pennypacker School is approximately 12.4:1 (26 FTE teachers).
What is the student diversity at Samuel Pennypacker School?
Student demographics at Samuel Pennypacker School are roughly 0% White, 7% Hispanic, 91% Black, 2% Two or more.
Is Samuel Pennypacker School public or private?
Samuel Pennypacker School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Philadelphia City SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.