Harlan Rowe Middle School

Harlan Rowe Middle School is a public middle school located in Athens, Pennsylvania, serving grades 6-8 with a total enrollment of 464 students. The school is part of the Athens Area School District, which is ranked 418 out of 606 school districts in Pennsylvania and has a 2-star rating from SchoolDigger.

Harlan Rowe Middle School's academic performance has been consistently below the state and district averages in both Math and English Language Arts (ELA) across all grade levels. For example, in the 2024-2025 school year, the school's proficiency rates were 30.5% in Math and 53.5% in ELA, compared to the state averages of 41.7% in Math and 48.5% in ELA. The school's performance has been declining over the years, with its statewide ranking dropping from 217 out of 797 Pennsylvania middle schools in 2020-2021 to 335 out of 873 in 2024-2025. Additionally, the school has experienced a relatively high dropout rate, ranging from 0.0% to 1.6% over the past few years, which is higher than the state average.

The school's performance varies significantly across different student subgroups. Male students generally perform better than female students, and white students and low socioeconomic status (SES) students also perform below their peers. Disabled students are the lowest-performing subgroup. Despite the increased spending per student, from $15,933 in 2019-2020 to $21,217 in 2022-2023, the school's academic performance has not shown commensurate improvements. This raises questions about the effectiveness of the school's resource allocation and the need to evaluate how funds are being utilized to support student learning and achievement.