Shady Grove El Sch

Shady Grove El Sch is a K-5 school of expansive scale in Ambler, Pennsylvania, operated by Wissahickon SD, serveing 698 students in grades K through 5. That puts it 58% larger than the typical public school in Pennsylvania, which averages around 443 students.

Wissahickon SD runs 6 schools in total, collectively educating 5,181 students. Shady Grove El Sch is one of those campuses.

In terms of who attends, Shady Grove El Sch reports that White students make up the majority at 63%. Other groups include 10% Asian, 10% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, 8% Black. That is noticeably less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 73%.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 48 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 14.5:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.1:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. About 29% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Montgomery County (around 40%), the school's rate is meaningfully below typical.

With demographic context factored in, Shady Grove El Sch performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 65.2%, the actual is 75.7%, a residual of +10.4 points.

Zooming out to the county, census data for Montgomery County shows the typical household earns roughly $113,915 per year, 53% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 4%. In all, Montgomery County runs 160 public schools (combined enrollment of about 115,302 students), of which Shady Grove El Sch is one.

The closest other public school is Blue Bell El Sch, roughly 1.2 miles away. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Shady Grove El Sch comes 4th of 9 in the immediate cluster, higher than the nearby-schools average of 75.1%.

Geographically, the school is in a residential area.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Shady Grove El Sch has edged up 14%, going from 611 students in 2018 to 698 in 2025. The White share of enrollment grew from 59% to 63% over that span. Class-load math has loosened: from 12.9:1 in 2018 to 14.5:1 in 2025.

On the community side, the feed for Shady Grove El Sch typically covers enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.