The top reported proficiency rate is 24% in Science. The lowest is 7% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Broughal Ms
Broughal Middle School serves grades six through eight in Bethlehem, a mid-sized Lehigh Valley city with a mixed character: a historic Moravian-anchored north side and a denser, more diverse south side near Lehigh University and the former Bethlehem Steel site. The school enrolls roughly half of the grades spread nearly evenly across sixth, seventh, and eighth. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch, and the majority of the student body identifies as Hispanic; significant shares identify as Black or white, with small numbers of Asian, multiracial, and Native American students.
State assessment results in 2024-25 show Broughal's proficiency in math and English language arts is quite low. In math, a very small proportion of students achieved proficiency, and in ELA, roughly a fifth did. Science proficiency from the prior year stands at roughly one quarter, with an average scale score available for that subject. When compared against other districts in Northampton County, Broughal sits in the bottom quartile on an overall proficiency index combining tested subjects and grades. A parent may want to look into what the school and district are doing to address these results.
The district has taken visible steps on instruction. Beginning in 2021, Bethlehem Area School District extended its Science of Reading approach from the early grades into grades four through twelve in partnership with Keys to Literacy, giving teachers across subject areas research-based instructional practices in comprehension, vocabulary, and writing. For a middle school, this means sustained, district-wide attention to how students engage with text and express themselves in writing across all classes, not just English. However, in January 2023, the Pennsylvania Auditor General publicly criticized Bethlehem Area's tax practices, finding the district used accounting moves to raise property taxes in years the auditor said the revenue was unneeded, a matter that may affect how the community and families regard district spending and priorities.
For the current school year, Broughal carries a Comprehensive School Improvement designation from the state, meaning it received additional federal CSI funds and Title I grant funds to support academic improvement work. Liberty and Freedom high schools, Nitschmann and Northeast middle schools, plus two elementary schools, also hold state improvement designations, so academic action plans span several buildings in the district.
The school sits in a city experiencing active growth. Mixed-use redevelopment on West Broad Street is delivering apartment housing with ground-floor retail. An affordable-housing project in South Bethlehem that will bring roughly one hundred units is moving toward construction. In surrounding Bethlehem Township, several large suburban subdivisions have advanced through review. Median home values in the zip code are moderate relative to the nation and somewhat below the state average. Rents have risen in line with or slightly faster than the national trend. St. Luke's University Health Network, headquartered in Bethlehem with substantial employment, anchors the local workforce alongside Lehigh University and the school district itself. Public transit is available through LANTA, Pennsylvania's third-largest transit agency.
A middle school student here works in a setting where the district is investing in literacy instruction across content areas while also operating under a state improvement mandate. Whether that combination addresses the current achievement gap depends on implementation, family engagement, and the student's own readiness. The proficiency results do not leave room for ambiguity: families considering this school should understand these baseline academic conditions and what the district's plans entail.
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