The top reported proficiency rate is 82% in Science. The lowest is 56% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Clarks Summit El Sch
Clarks Summit Elementary School is a public school serving kindergarten through fourth grade in a small borough just north of Scranton within the Abington Heights School District. The school enrolls students across the full early primary band, with a moderately sized enrollment distributed fairly evenly from kindergarten through fourth grade.
The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Asian, Hispanic, multiracial, Black, and other students. Fewer than one in twenty students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a reflection of the generally higher-income character of the Clarks Summit area and the surrounding Abingtons suburban region. Data on English learner enrollment and students with individualized education plans was not available.
On state assessments, the school shows a pattern of stronger performance in math and science than in English language arts. In the most recent math results, proficiency ran at a solid level. Science proficiency was notably higher, well above that. English language arts proficiency was lower, with fewer than three in five students scoring at proficient or above. The school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among districts in Lackawanna County, a position that reflects strength in math and science offsetting the softer ELA results. A parent may want to discuss with the school what underlying support and instruction are in place around reading and writing development, especially given the district's recent adoption of the Wit & Wisdom knowledge-building ELA curriculum across all elementary grades as part of its 2021-2026 curriculum plan.
Clarks Summit itself is a residential borough with a tree-lined character, tree-lined streets, and a small commercial strip along State Street where most shops and restaurants cluster. The school sits on West Grove Street, away from the downtown spine but within the residential community. The area is predominantly car-oriented outside the State Street corridor, and most residents own their homes. The local employment base includes the Clarks Summit State Hospital, Keystone Community Resources (a disability services nonprofit), and health care and educational services as major sectors. Many residents commute to Scranton for work.
The Abington Heights School District, which encompasses Clarks Summit, Waverly, and Chinchilla, has experienced two consecutive years of school property tax increases, in 2022-23 and 2023-24, which reset the district's tax rate after a long period of flat or minimal increases. These increases materially raised the annual property tax burden for homeowners across the district's communities. Housing values in the Clarks Summit zip code sit around the midpoint between state and national benchmarks, and the area is seeing modest new residential construction through communities like The Preserve at Gravel Pond and RD Noto's Ridgewood development within the school district boundaries.
The elementary school itself has no graduation rate (it does not serve high school grades) and no data on chronic absenteeism or discipline were available. Staffing, attendance, and course-access details were not reported. For families considering the Clarks Summit area and this elementary school, the combination of strong math and science results with a need to monitor ELA progress, modest household-income support needs, and the context of recent district property tax increases provide the frame for early-grades decision-making.
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