Enrollment
371
Elementary
DISTRICT 299 · STATE 443
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·LOWER DAUPHIN SD·NCES 421410001797
South Hanover Elementary School
15 W 3rd St, Hershey, PA 17033 · (717) 566-2564 · Dauphin County
GRADES KG–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBREGULAR SCHOOL371 STUDENTS
A
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 89% of Pennsylvania public elementary schools
- ATest scores Share of students meeting the state standard in reading, math, and other tested subjects, 2023-24 and 2024-25.
- B+Beats 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
13.2:1
28 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.5:1 · STATE 13.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
19%
72 students
DISTRICT 32% · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Kindergarten | 48 | 13% |
| Grade 1 | 49 | 13% |
| Grade 2 | 70 | 19% |
| Grade 3 | 72 | 19% |
| Grade 4 | 65 | 18% |
| Grade 5 | 67 | 18% |
This year's kindergarten class (48) is 28% smaller than its 5th grade class (67).
Student demographics
42%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 36% · 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
74.5%
PA avg 51.1% . -4.9pp since 2023
Math
81.2%
PA avg 43.0% . +3.5pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 75 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 81 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 5 points since 2023, while math scores are up about 4 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 74.5% | 81.2% |
| 2023-24 | 79.4% | 77.7% |
% 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
AS EXPECTED
Performing as predicted given the school's student profile
Actual proficiency
79.7%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
69.3%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+10.4pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 80% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 69% 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 South Hanover Elementary School
South Hanover Elementary School's state test result (79.7% proficient) is higher than 5 of the 5 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Hanover Elementary School this school | 371 | 19.4% | 79.7% |
| Park Forest Elementary School State College | 419 | 18.6% | 75.3% |
| Wrightstown Elementary School Wrightstown | 399 | 18.3% | 75.8% |
| Oak Ridge Elementary School Harleysville | 420 | 19.5% | 63.8% |
| Unionville Elementary School Kennett Square | 372 | 15.9% | 75.1% |
| Benjamin Franklin Elementary School Bethel Park | 338 | 19.5% | 78.4% |
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 South Hanover Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Dauphin County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 79.7% | #116 of 1,396 | #2 of 31 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 81.2% | #94 of 1,511 ▲ 22 | #1 of 36 ▲ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 74.5% | #144 of 1,511 ▼ 16 | #3 of 36 ▼ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 371 | #998 of 1,638 | #23 of 40 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 13.2:1 | #821 of 1,528 | #22 of 39 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 42.2% | #711 of 1,531 | #31 of 40 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 19.4% | #1,447 of 1,600 | #36 of 37 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -9.7% | #657 of 1,045 | #9 of 17 |
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
371
+43 (+13%) vs 2020
-9% since 1990-91, when it was 409
Student : Teacher
13.2:1
was 12.2:1
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 | 371 | 28.1 | 13.2:1 | 19% (72) |
| 2023-24 | 372 | 26.5 | 14.1:1 | 19% (72) |
| 2022-23 | 385 | 28.4 | 13.6:1 | 16% (61) |
| 2020-21 | 328 | 27 | 12.2:1 | 13% (41) |
| 2017-18 | 411 | 29.4 | 14.0:1 | 13% (53) |
| 2015-16 | 374 | 26 | 14.4:1 | 11% (43) |
| 2010-11 | 388 | 24 | 16.2:1 | 11% (43) |
| 2000-01 | 403 | 24 | 16.8:1 | 8% (33) |
| 1990-91 | 409 | 22 | 18.6:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for South Hanover Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 10% (411 to 371); teachers down 4% (29.4 to 28.1).
About South Hanover Elementary School
South Hanover Elementary School is a low-enrollment elementary school in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The school has 371 students in 2024-25 across kindergarten through 5.
South Hanover Elementary School reports to Lower Dauphin SD, which has 8 schools and 3,339 students.
The student body at South Hanover Elementary School is 75% White. Beyond that, enrollment is 8% Asian, 8% Hispanic, 5% multiracial, and 4% Black. The White share of the county population is lower, at 63%. On a 0 to 100 scale, the school's diversity index is 42, compared with 70 nationally.
Classroom staffing at South Hanover Elementary School totals 28.1 full-time-equivalent teachers, and the student-to-teacher ratio is 13.2:1. That is in line with the 13.1:1 average for elementary schools in Pennsylvania. Federal data show 19% of students (72) are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. By comparison, the figure for public schools in Dauphin County is 59%.
South Hanover Elementary School holds an A allk12 Grade, placing it above 89% of Pennsylvania public elementary schools.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 69.3% for South Hanover Elementary School. The school posts 79.7%, 10.4 points above the prediction.
American Community Survey estimates for Dauphin County show that median household income comes to about $76,242, a bachelor's degree or higher is held by about 34% of adults, and the poverty rate is about 9%. The county's public schools total 75, with about 72,718 students.
Lower Dauphin Middle School, about 2.2 miles away, is the closest public school. A five-mile radius around the school includes at least 8 other public schools. South Hanover Elementary School places 1st of 7 on proficiency among the closest schools that report scores.
Locale: Suburb: Large. In NCES terms, the school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more.
By 2024-25, enrollment had risen to 371, from 328 in 2020-21. The ratio of students to teachers went from 12.2:1 to 13.2:1 over the same years.
The South Hanover Elementary School discussion page is a place for open houses, carpools, and field trips. You can also rate the school on this page.
Dauphin County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
289,593
Census ACS
Median income
$76,242
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
34%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
9%
Below federal line
Schools in county
75
72,718 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Lower Dauphin SD
- Lower Dauphin High SchoolHigh · 1,057 students
- Lower Dauphin Middle SchoolMiddle · 781 students
- East Hanover Elementary SchoolElementary · 333 students
- Nye Elementary SchoolElementary · 317 students
- Conewago Elementary SchoolElementary · 239 students
- Londonderry Elementary SchoolElementary · 234 students
Other schools in Hershey
- Hershey High SchoolHigh · 1,050 students
- Hershey Middle SchoolMiddle · 742 students
- Hershey Intrmd Elementary SchoolElementary · 479 students
- Hershey Primary Elementary SchoolElementary · 427 students
- Hershey Early Childhood CenterElementary · 420 students
Nearby schools
- Lower Dauphin Middle School2.2 mi · 781
- Price2.2 mi · 7
- Hershey Primary Elementary School2.2 mi · 427
- Hershey Intrmd Elementary School2.2 mi · 479
- Hershey Early Childhood Center2.2 mi · 420
- Hershey Middle School2.4 mi · 742
Frequently asked questions
About South Hanover Elementary SchoolHow large is South Hanover Elementary School?
South Hanover Elementary School enrolls approximately 371 students in grades KG-05.
What age range does South Hanover Elementary School serve?
South Hanover Elementary School serves students from grade KG through grade 05.
How many students per teacher at South Hanover Elementary School?
Approximately 13.2:1 students per teacher at South Hanover Elementary School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at South Hanover Elementary School?
At South Hanover Elementary School, the student body is approximately 75% White, 8% Hispanic, 4% Black, 8% Asian, 5% Two or more.
Is South Hanover Elementary School public or private?
South Hanover Elementary School is a public K-12 school, overseen by Lower Dauphin SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.