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Reading, Pennsylvania - 19 schools
An equity score of 45/100 ranks Reading Sd #363 of 648 districts in Pennsylvania (state average 49). Derived live from how evenly resources are distributed across the district's schools.
At $13,219 per pupil, Reading Sd ranks #649 of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending (Pennsylvania districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
17,363
Total Enrollment
19
Schools
$13,219
Per-Pupil Spending
Combined, Elementary
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Reading Sd operates 19 public schools serving 17,363 students, placing it among the smaller districts in Pennsylvania. The school portfolio breaks down into 13 combined, 5 elementary, 1 high schools, a compact enough portfolio that families can compare every campus directly before they move, rent, or enrol. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Berks County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $13,219 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, among the bottom 68 of 671 Pennsylvania districts by per-pupil spending. See how Pennsylvania compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 15.9% local, 70.2% state, and 13.9% federal, a state-revenue-heavy mix that insulates the district somewhat from local property-tax volatility, though it ties funding to state budget cycles. The district's equity score is 45/100, ranked #363 of 648 in Pennsylvania against a state average of 49, in line with the typical spread seen across the state for how evenly funding reaches its schools.
Academic infrastructure includes 1 of 19 schools offering Advanced Placement (9 AP courses district-wide), a 461.9:1 student-counselor ratio, above both the ASCA benchmark and the roughly 408:1 national average, and 45.9% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 87.9% Hispanic or Latino, 5.7% African American, 4.5% White across the district's schools. Its most demographically mixed campus is Millmont El Sch, with a diversity index of 36.7/100.
Its largest campus is Reading Shs, enrolling 4,879 students (30% of the district's total enrollment). Its smallest is Glenside El Sch, at 261 students, a 19x enrollment spread across the district's campuses.
Reading Shs accounts for 28.1% of all Reading Sd student enrollment
That dominant concentration means Reading Sd-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the dominant entity. Grade band: high. A single dominant campus often anchors a district's program offerings and staffing patterns; the share helps explain why district-wide averages may not reflect the typical neighbourhood-school experience. When one entity dominates a region's footprint, its programmatic and budget decisions effectively set policy for a majority of the affected population.
Reading Sd school enrollment varies 19× across entities
Reading Sd school enrollment ranges from 261 students (lowest) to 4,879 students (highest), a spread of 4,618 students. That spread reflects typical mixed-portfolio variation between specialty programs and large neighbourhood schools. Per-school staffing ratios, programme availability, and capital-renovation cycles often diverge inside the same district based on enrollment shape.
Reading Sd has higher-than-average Title I eligibility — 99.2% of the population qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch
free or reduced-price lunch eligibility is the federal threshold for Title I funding allocations, established under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015). Eligibility here is a supermajority of the population — well past the 75% concentration-grant threshold that unlocks extra funding on top of the basic Title I formula. Regions with eligibility this high typically draw a substantially larger federal funding share relative to their local tax base, which can either offset or reinforce existing gaps depending on allocation policy.
Reading Sd student-counselor ratio is 462:1 — high (typically associated with staffing constraints that limit per-student counselor time; CRDC data shows higher ratios cluster in larger urban systems)
student-counselor ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE counselors against total enrollment, districts that contract intervention or social-emotional staff outside the counselor classification may be under-counted Higher values may reflect larger urban scale or recent resource constraints that have widened the gap.
Reading Sd chronic absenteeism rate is 45.9% — well above typical (typically associated with unusually large scale or acute resource constraints)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Values this far above typical often signal acute resource constraints or a structurally different scale than most peers — worth reading alongside the underlying counts, not the ratio alone.