NCES CCD 2024-25 13 schools PA

Best-Resourced Schools in Altoona, PA

Compiled from official source data by .

13 public K-12 schools in Altoona from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
13
Schools
7,107
Students
46.5/100
Avg Resource Index
11.6:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Altoona has more public-school enrollment than 70% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Altoona sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

The school portfolio is elementary-weighted

8 of Altoona's 13 listed schools are elementary campuses. That composition means citywide enrollment and staffing averages are influenced more by early-grade operating patterns than by the city's 1 middle and 1 high-school records. Families comparing later grades should rely on those individual rows rather than the all-school mean.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 58-point gap between Greater Altoona Ctc and Pleasant Valley El Sch shows the range hidden by Altoona's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 30%
School count
Top 28%
Resource Index average
76th percentile
Teacher staffing
91st percentile

Altoona Area Hs accounts for 31.7% of all Altoona public-school enrollment

That dominant concentration means Altoona-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: Combined. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Altoona school enrollment varies 2255× across entities

Altoona school enrollment ranges from 1 students (lowest) to 2,255 students (highest), a spread of 2,254 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Altoona reports 60.9% free-lunch eligibility

The reported share clears the 50% majority mark. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Altoona student-teacher ratio is 11.6:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. Greater Altoona Ctc 92
2. Central Pa Digital Lrng Foundation Cs 61
3. Baker El Sch 48
4. Altoona Area Jr Hs 46
5. Juniata Gap El Sch 42
6. Altoona Area Hs 41
7. Juniata El Sch 41
8. Mowrie a Ebner El Sch 40
9. Irving El Sch 40
10. Logan El Sch 37
11. Penn-Lincoln El Sch 36
12. Pleasant Valley El Sch 34
13. Kimmel Alternative School -

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Altoona

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Penn-Lincoln El Sch 46.4/100
  2. 2 Juniata El Sch 39.4/100
  3. 3 Mowrie a Ebner El Sch 38.8/100
  4. 4 Pleasant Valley El Sch 38.6/100
  5. 5 Juniata Gap El Sch 32.5/100

What do families ask about schools in Altoona?

Which Altoona school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Greater Altoona Ctc has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Altoona schools in this federal-data comparison at 92/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Altoona, PA? ▼

Altoona has 13 public schools with a total enrollment of 7,107 students. 1 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 11.6:1.

Other Cities in Pennsylvania

Philadelphia
303 schools
Pittsburgh
145 schools
Harrisburg
40 schools
York
39 schools
Lancaster
37 schools
Erie
36 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Pennsylvania →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.