Benton Area HS
Benton · PA · Benton Area SD · Public
Similar nearby schools
Most similar nearby schools
Millville Area JSHS → Northwest Area HS → Columbia-Montour Area Vocational-Technical School → Berwick Area HS → New Story School → Central Columbia SHS → Columbia County Christian School → Bloomsburg Area HS →📋 At a glance
- 📚 1 AP courses offered — Strong
- ✅ Dual-enrollment program (college credit while in HS)
- ✅ Gifted & talented program
- 🎓 AP rigor: 52th percentile nationally
- 📝 SAT/ACT participation: Bottom 20% by test-taker volume
- 🎓 4-yr grad rate: 95% (75th percentile nationally)
Composed from federal CRDC offerings, EDFacts ACGR, and other public data. Full breakdowns below.
How Benton Area HS compares for families
Solid mid-tier academic profile.
- ▸ StatewideAP rigor at the 52th percentile nationally with 1 AP courses.
- ▸ LocallyPA students outperform the US average on NAEP 8th-grade math (+4 points).
- ▸ vs Similar SchoolsThe closest comparables nearby: Millville Area JSHS, Northwest Area HS, Columbia-Montour Area Vocational-Technical School and 5 more. See the sidebar to compare side-by-side.
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🎓 Academic rigor
AP + advanced-course offerings
Strong — solid AP program + advanced courses
52th percentile nationally
✅ Gifted/talented program
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). CRDC reports what's offered + enrolled — it doesn't collect AP exam pass rates (College Board owns that data and doesn't release it school-level).
SAT / ACT participation
CRDC federal data · 2020-21Bottom 20% by test-taker volume
Source: federal Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC 2020-21). Volume — not score — is what's reported here. A higher count means more students at this school are entering the college admissions pipeline. Note: 2020-21 was COVID-disrupted; some districts (especially those that stayed remote longer) report unusually low or zero takers.
🎓 4-year graduation rate · federal EDFacts
What % of students graduate on time?
75th percentile nationally
Source: federal EDFacts ACGR (Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate), 2019 vintage via Urban Institute. EDFacts publishes a range (low-high) to preserve privacy on small cohorts; we display the midpoint.
🏛️ Federal Title I context
High-poverty school
Title I Schoolwide eligible
≥75% of students qualify for free/reduced lunch. These schools qualify for the highest tier of federal Title I funding and typically receive extra wraparound services. Academic outcomes vary widely — check the state assessment + grad-rate tiles.
Source: NCES Common Core of Data, free/reduced-price lunch eligibility. The actual Title I designation is a district decision and may differ from eligibility — but the federal eligibility math is what we show here. We don't claim to assert whether the district formally chose to enroll this school in Title I.
Chronic absenteeism
Why this matters to enrollment: A low chronic-absence rate is the cleanest school-level signal of strong family connection, classroom culture, and student engagement — all upstream drivers of enrollment stability. For school leaders: an Enrollment Trend Audit traces this dynamic forward →
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–2021. Rate = students chronically absent ÷ 2024 total enrollment.
Counselor capacity
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020-2021. Counselor ratio = the school's most recent total enrollment ÷ counselor FTE. The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) recommends a 250:1 maximum; the US national median across schools with on-staff counselors is roughly 430:1.
Enrollment trend & projection
Total enrollment + grade 12, NCES Common Core of Data (2021–2024).
If the recent trend holds…
At its recent rate of +2.4%/year, projecting from 2024's 200 students:
An extrapolation of the recent trajectory, not a forecast of the school's plans; ignores one-off shocks.
Revenue upside
At $21,418 per student in district revenue, the 26 students projected to be gained by 2029 represent ≈ $556,868/year in additional funding.
District total revenue ÷ enrollment, NCES F-33. Public funding largely follows enrollment, so a shrinking class is a recurring budget hit.
Nearby high schools — the local competition
The closest high schools families here also consider, and where their enrollment is heading.
| School | Type | Miles | HS enrollment | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Millville Area JSHS Millville |
Public | 9.2 | 148 | +1.4% |
| Northwest Area HS Shickshinny |
Public | 10.0 | 264 | -10.5% |
| Columbia-Montour Area Vocational-Technical School Bloomsburg |
Public | 11.7 | 609 | -1.8% |
| Berwick Area HS Berwick |
Public | 12.0 | 692 | -3.5% |
| New Story School Berwick |
Private | 12.2 | 40 | — |
| Central Columbia SHS Bloomsburg |
Public | 12.2 | 601 | -0.8% |
| Columbia County Christian School Bloomsburg |
Private | 13.5 | 197 | +20.9% |
| Bloomsburg Area HS Bloomsburg |
Public | 14.9 | 362 | -16.8% |