Enrollment
447
High
DISTRICT 689 · STATE 738
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·PHILADELPHIA CITY SD·NCES 421899003825
Sayre William L Middle School
5800 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19139 · (215) 400-7800 · Philadelphia County
GRADES 09–12HIGH11-CITYTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL447 STUDENTS
D
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 5% of Pennsylvania public high schools
- DTest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- FBeats 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 high schools
Student : Teacher
17.0:1
26 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 18.7:1 · STATE 12.8:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
95%
424 students
DISTRICT 99% · STATE 75%
Community
0
0 members
Enrollment and student:teacher ratio compared against other high schools. Free/Reduced Lunch and demographics compared against all schools.
Enrollment by grade, 2024-25
| Grade | Students | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Grade 9 | 108 | 24% |
| Grade 10 | 131 | 29% |
| Grade 11 | 100 | 22% |
| Grade 12 | 108 | 24% |
Student demographics
20%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
QUIET COMMUNITY
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START A DISCUSSIONTest scores
PSSA + Keystone 2024-25 . % Proficient or AdvancedEnglish Language Arts
21.8%
PA avg 51.1% . -3.7pp since 2023
Math
6.2%
PA avg 43.0% . +1.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 22 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 6 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 4 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 1 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 21.8% | 6.2% |
| 2023-24 | 25.5% | 5.0% |
% 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
13.5%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
36.9%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
-23.4pp
below demographic expectation
What this means: About 14% 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 Sayre William L Middle School
Sayre William L Middle School's state test result (13.5% proficient) is higher than 3 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sayre William L Middle School this school | 447 | 94.9% | 13.5% |
| Overbrook High School Philadelphia | 440 | 88.9% | 12.8% |
| King Martin Luther High School Philadelphia | 527 | 100.0% | 8.5% |
| School of the Future Philadelphia | 569 | 98.4% | 12.9% |
| TECH Freire CS Philadelphia | 541 | 90.8% | 29.9% |
| KIPP DuBois CS Philadelphia | 523 | 99.4% | 22.9% |
Matched among Pennsylvania high 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 Sayre William L Middle School ranks
Among high schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Philadelphia County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 13.5% | #551 of 576 | #43 of 57 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 6.2% | #583 of 626 ▼ 1 | #49 of 67 no change |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 21.8% | #591 of 626 ▼ 5 | #55 of 67 ▼ 5 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 447 | #447 of 713 | #48 of 70 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 17.0:1 | #524 of 601 | #33 of 65 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 19.8% | #380 of 604 | #50 of 65 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 94.9% | #219 of 619 | #47 of 67 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked fastest growth first | +7.7% | #110 of 221 | #19 of 31 |
Ranked against other public high 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
447
+49 (+12%) vs 2020
-63% since 1990-91, when it was 1,202
Student : Teacher
17.0:1
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 | 447 | 26.3 | 17.0:1 | 95% (424) |
| 2023-24 | 424 | 36.2 | 11.7:1 | 100% (424) |
| 2022-23 | 355 | 33.2 | 10.7:1 | 100% (354) |
| 2020-21 | 398 | 31 | 12.8:1 | 99% (395) |
| 2017-18 | 415 | 32.6 | 12.7:1 | 100% (414) |
| 2015-16 | 494 | 31 | 15.9:1 | 100% (494) |
| 2010-11 | 626 | 46 | 13.6:1 | 100% (623) |
| 2000-01 | 1,196 | 60 | 19.9:1 | 86% (1,030) |
| 1990-91 | 1,202 | 65 | 18.5:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for Sayre William L Middle School.
Since 2017-18: students up 8% (415 to 447); teachers down 19% (32.6 to 26.3).
About Sayre William L Middle School
A small high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Sayre William L Middle School is part of Philadelphia City SD. Enrollment is 447 students in 2024-25, and the school serves grades 9 through 12. The average for high schools in Pennsylvania is about 738 students, so this school is 39% smaller than average.
Sayre William L Middle School is part of Philadelphia City SD, where 220 schools serve 116,230 students.
The student body at Sayre William L Middle School is 89% Black. Other reported shares: 6% Hispanic and 4% multiracial. Philadelphia County's residents are about 39% Black, 50 points below the school's share. Pick two students at random and there is a 20% chance they belong to different racial or ethnic groups; that figure is the school's diversity index.
The count of teachers at Sayre William L Middle School is 26.3 full-time equivalents, for a ratio of 17.0:1. That is higher than the 12.8:1 average for high schools in Pennsylvania. The school counts 424 students as eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, or 95%. For comparison, public schools in Philadelphia County average 95%.
allk12 grades Sayre William L Middle School a D. The grade compares the school only with Pennsylvania public high schools, because each state gives its own test.
The allk12 BeatsExpectations score for Sayre William L Middle School is -23.4 points, in the bottom 10% of Pennsylvania. Its average proficiency rate on state tests is 13.5%, and the predicted rate is 36.9%.
Across Philadelphia County, the median household income is $61,953, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 35% of adults, and the share of residents below the poverty line is 17%. Philadelphia County is home to 309 public schools and about 182,005 public school students.
Nearby, Hamilton Andrew School is about 0.2 miles away. Within five miles of Sayre William L Middle School, there are at least 8 other public schools. The average proficiency across nearby scored schools is 19.4%; Sayre William L Middle School's is 13.5%, ranking 4th of 5.
The school is inside a principal city with a population of 250,000 or more, according to its NCES locale (City: Large).
Enrollment at Sayre William L Middle School climbed 12% between 2020-21 and 2024-25, from 398 to 447 students. Its ratio of students to teachers was 12.8:1 in 2020-21, and 17.0:1 in 2024-25.
Threads on this page can be about sports schedules, lunch menus, and spirit week. Alumni can share how the school prepared them.
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
- Hamilton Andrew School0.2 mi · 348
- Bryant William C School0.4 mi · 338
- Barry Comm John School0.5 mi · 467
- Boys' Latin of Philadelphia CS0.5 mi · 747
- Mastery CS-Harrity Campus0.6 mi · 750
- Global Leadership Academy CS Southwest at Huey0.7 mi · 586
Frequently asked questions
About Sayre William L Middle SchoolWhat is the total enrollment at Sayre William L Middle School?
Sayre William L Middle School enrolls approximately 447 students in grades 09-12.
What age range does Sayre William L Middle School serve?
Sayre William L Middle School serves students from grade 09 through grade 12.
How many students per teacher at Sayre William L Middle School?
Approximately 17.0:1 students per teacher at Sayre William L Middle School.
What is the student diversity at Sayre William L Middle School?
Student demographics at Sayre William L Middle School are roughly 0% White, 6% Hispanic, 89% Black, 1% Asian, 4% Two or more.
Who oversees Sayre William L Middle School?
Sayre William L Middle School is overseen by Philadelphia City SD in Philadelphia County.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.