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What's the most underrated thing about West Hempfield El Sch that outsiders don't know?
Community prompt from u/allk12. Replies below.
Enrollment
496
Elementary
DISTRICT 449 · STATE 443
SCHOOL COMMUNITY·HEMPFIELD AREA SD·NCES 421176004399
West Hempfield Elementary School
469 Wendel Road, Irwin, PA 15642 · (724) 850-2780 · Westmoreland County
GRADES PK–05ELEMENTARY21-SUBURBTITLE IREGULAR SCHOOL496 STUDENTS
B-
allk12 Grade
Scored higher than 49% of Pennsylvania public elementary schools
- B-Test 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
11.9:1
42 FTE teachers
DISTRICT 12.9:1 · STATE 13.1:1
Free / Reduced Lunch
53%
262 students
DISTRICT 41% · 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | 20 | 4% |
| Kindergarten | 70 | 14% |
| Grade 1 | 77 | 16% |
| Grade 2 | 74 | 15% |
| Grade 3 | 84 | 17% |
| Grade 4 | 87 | 18% |
| Grade 5 | 84 | 17% |
This year's kindergarten class (70) is 17% smaller than its 5th grade class (84).
Student demographics
17%Diversity index
The chance that two students picked at random belong to different racial or ethnic groups.
DISTRICT 17% · 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
49.0%
PA avg 51.1% . -9.8pp since 2023
Math
52.3%
PA avg 43.0% . -1.2pp since 2023
What this means: On the PSSA + Keystone, Pennsylvania's statewide test, about 49 of every 100 students at this school read and write at grade level and about 52 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 10 points since 2023, while math scores are down about 1 points.
PSSA + Keystone results by year
| School year | English Language Arts | Math |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 49.0% | 52.3% |
| 2023-24 | 58.8% | 53.5% |
% 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
57.2%
composite math + reading, all grades
Predicted
55.0%
based on PA schools with similar FRL share
Beats by
+2.3pp
above demographic expectation
What this means: About 57% of students here test proficient in math and reading, compared with the roughly 55% 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 West Hempfield Elementary School
West Hempfield Elementary School's state test result (57.2% proficient) is higher than 2 of the 3 schools below with a result.
| School | Students | Low-income | Proficient |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Hempfield Elementary School this school | 496 | 52.8% | 57.2% |
| Selinsgrove Area Elementary School Selinsgrove | 472 | 50.8% | N/A |
| Lackawanna Trail El Center Factoryville | 505 | 50.9% | 53.8% |
| Claysville Elementary School Claysville | 478 | 52.3% | 56.0% |
| Jersey Shore Area Elementary School Jersey Shore | 499 | 56.1% | 60.4% |
| Maple Ridge Elementary School Somerset | 484 | 54.5% | N/A |
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 West Hempfield Elementary School ranks
Among elementary schools| Measure | This school | In Pennsylvania | In Westmoreland County |
|---|---|---|---|
| State test proficiency ranked highest first | 57.2% | #671 of 1,396 | #28 of 37 |
| Math proficiency ranked highest first | 52.3% | #734 of 1,511 ▼ 75 | #29 of 38 ▼ 1 |
| Reading proficiency ranked highest first | 49.0% | #767 of 1,511 ▼ 102 | #28 of 38 ▲ 1 |
| Enrollment ranked largest first | 496 | #544 of 1,638 | #13 of 43 |
| Students per teacher ranked fewest first | 11.9:1 | #416 of 1,528 | #5 of 39 |
| Diversity index ranked most diverse first | 17.0% | #1,252 of 1,531 | #26 of 39 |
| Free and reduced lunch ranked highest share first | 52.8% | #948 of 1,600 | #19 of 42 |
| Enrollment change since 2017-18 ranked steepest decline first | -2.6% | #946 of 1,045 | #30 of 33 |
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
496
+14 (+3%) vs 2020
-20% since 1990-91, when it was 620
Student : Teacher
11.9:1
was 13.0:1
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 | 496 | 41.6 | 11.9:1 | 53% (262) |
| 2023-24 | 504 | 42.6 | 11.8:1 | 52% (262) |
| 2022-23 | 509 | 38.8 | 13.1:1 | 48% (244) |
| 2020-21 | 482 | 37 | 13.0:1 | 40% (195) |
| 2017-18 | 509 | 38.7 | 13.1:1 | 41% (210) |
| 2015-16 | 522 | 40 | 13.1:1 | 39% (206) |
| 2010-11 | 524 | 36 | 14.6:1 | 37% (194) |
| 2000-01 | 548 | 32 | 17.1:1 | 25% (138) |
| 1990-91 | 620 | 32 | 19.4:1 | N/A |
Source: NCES Common Core of Data. Rows are the federal collections on file for West Hempfield Elementary School.
Since 2017-18: students down 3% (509 to 496); teachers up 7% (38.7 to 41.6).
About West Hempfield Elementary School
West Hempfield Elementary School, located in Irwin, Pennsylvania, is a mid-sized elementary school. The school serves pre-K through 5. Enrollment is 496 students.
The 9 schools in Hempfield Area SD enroll 5,015 students altogether, West Hempfield Elementary School among them.
White students are 91% of those enrolled at West Hempfield Elementary School. The remaining shares are 5% multiracial. That is in line with Westmoreland County, where about 92% of residents are White. Its diversity index, the chance that two randomly chosen students belong to different racial or ethnic groups, is 17%.
West Hempfield Elementary School has 41.6 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-to-teacher ratio of about 11.9:1. Elementary schools in Pennsylvania have an average ratio of 13.1:1. Eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch, often used to gauge student poverty, is 53%. Public schools in Westmoreland County average a similar 53%.
Among Pennsylvania public elementary schools, West Hempfield Elementary School outscored 49%, which works out to a B- on the allk12 Grade.
Based on its free or reduced-price lunch share, the BeatsExpectations model predicts an average proficiency rate across its state test results of 55.0% for West Hempfield Elementary School. The school posts 57.2%, 2.3 points above the prediction.
Five-year Census Bureau estimates for Westmoreland County show that the median household earns about $74,109 a year, the share of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher is 33%, and roughly 7% of residents are in poverty. Across Westmoreland County, 85 public schools serve about 41,302 students.
The closest school to West Hempfield Elementary School is West Hempfield Middle School, located about 0.6 miles away. West Hempfield Elementary School is one of several public schools in the area, with at least 8 others within five miles. West Hempfield Elementary School's average proficiency of 57.2% compares with 69.5% for its nearest scored neighbors.
The school is in a suburban area outside a principal city, within an urbanized area with a population of 250,000 or more, according to its NCES locale (Suburb: Large).
Enrollment was 496 in 2024-25. In 2020-21, it was 482. Staffing shifted too: the ratio moved from 13.0:1 to 11.9:1.
This page is set up for the West Hempfield Elementary School community to discuss special education services, counseling, and support programs. Current and former families are welcome to add their experience.
Westmoreland County at a glance
View full county profilePopulation
352,500
Census ACS
Median income
$74,109
Household, ACS
Bachelor's+
33%
Adults 25+
Poverty rate
7%
Below federal line
Schools in county
85
41,302 students
Quick facts
Related schools
Other schools in Hempfield Area SD
- Hempfield Area SHSHigh · 1,228 students
- Wendover Middle SchoolMiddle · 626 students
- West Hempfield Middle SchoolMiddle · 546 students
- Stanwood Elementary SchoolElementary · 518 students
- Fort Allen Elementary SchoolElementary · 480 students
- Maxwell Elementary SchoolElementary · 380 students
Other schools in Irwin
- West Hempfield Middle SchoolMiddle · 546 students
- Sunrise Elementary SchoolElementary · 412 students
Nearby schools
- West Hempfield Middle School0.6 mi · 546
- Hahntown Elementary School2.6 mi · 419
- Sheridan Terrace Elementary School2.9 mi · 417
- Norwin Middle School2.9 mi · 819
- Norwin High School2.9 mi · 1,671
- Hillcrest Intermediate School3.1 mi · 755
Frequently asked questions
About West Hempfield Elementary SchoolHow large is West Hempfield Elementary School?
West Hempfield Elementary School enrolls approximately 496 students in grades PK-05.
Is West Hempfield Elementary School an elementary, middle, or high school?
West Hempfield Elementary School is an elementary school covering grades PK-05.
How many students per teacher at West Hempfield Elementary School?
Approximately 11.9:1 students per teacher at West Hempfield Elementary School.
What is the racial breakdown of students at West Hempfield Elementary School?
At West Hempfield Elementary School, the student body is approximately 91% White, 1% Hispanic, 1% Black, 1% Asian, 5% Two or more.
What district is West Hempfield Elementary School in?
West Hempfield Elementary School is part of Hempfield Area SD.
Data sourceSchool profile facts are sourced from the NCES. Community content is posted by allk12 members.