The top reported proficiency rate is 29% in Math. The lowest is 24% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Pennsylvania Steam Academy Cs
Pennsylvania STEAM Academy CS is a tuition-free public charter school in Harrisburg serving kindergarten through fourth grade. The school opened in fall 2021 and has expanded one grade level each year; the Harrisburg School Board recently approved a renewal of the school's charter through mid-2031 and authorized expansion to eighth grade over the coming years, giving families continuity and the option to stay through middle school rather than transferring after elementary.
The school sits in Harrisburg's downtown and midtown area, near the state capitol and close to restaurants, art venues, parks, and transit. The region's economy centers on state government employment, with also significant presence in health care, insurance, professional services, and technology. The housing market in Harrisburg is tight, with prices recently below the state and national benchmarks but rising modestly; rental costs have ticked up as well. Families moving into the area in recent years have come primarily from the Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York regions.
Pennsylvania STEAM Academy's enrollment is small, under three hundred students across five grades. All students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Black, with a substantial Hispanic population, smaller numbers of Asian, multiracial, and white students, and very few Native American or Pacific Islander students. The school operates with small class sizes, capped at twenty students, with one teacher and one Success Coach aide per classroom. It employs a STEM-plus-arts curriculum model; specific course and program details were not available in the school's public reporting.
On the most recent state assessments in math and English language arts, administered to students in grades three through four, proficiency rates were low. In math, roughly a quarter of tested students scored at proficient or above. In English language arts, the rate was somewhat lower, at roughly a quarter as well. These results place the school below the midpoint of proficiency performance among the county's school districts. Participation rates and average scale scores on state assessments were not reported. Graduation rates, discipline data, chronic absenteeism, special education enrollment, and English learner counts do not apply to a school serving only early elementary grades, so no data on those metrics are available.
The school's recent charter renewal and approval for expansion suggest stability in the immediate future. For families considering this school, the defining characteristics are the small class sizes, dedicated support aides, tuition-free access, arts-integrated curriculum model, and early-elementary focus. The current academic proficiency results are an important factor to weigh; a parent may want to look into this further with the school directly, including what instructional strategies are being used to strengthen outcomes in these foundational years and what changes, if any, are planned in response to recent assessment data.
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