The top reported proficiency rate is 87% in Science. The lowest is 51% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Cambria El Sch
Cambria Elementary School serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, a small county-seat borough in the Allegheny Mountains. The school itself sits on Schoolhouse Road on the west side of town, about five miles from downtown's historic core, where the courthouse, library, and locally owned shops anchor civic life. The borough retains a small-town character with restored Victorian homes from its era as a summer retreat, recent downtown streetscape improvements, and community anchors like Lake Rowena park and the Saturday Farmer's Market.
The school's enrollment sits at a mid-sized level for an elementary, with roughly equal numbers of students in each grade from kindergarten through fifth. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with very small numbers of students from other racial backgrounds. Close to half the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, a substantial and meaningful portion that signals moderate economic stress in the families the school serves.
Academic performance is mixed. In math, the school sits in the top quartile among Cambria County districts on a measure of overall proficiency, with a solid rate of students meeting or exceeding state standards. Science performance is notably strong. English language arts, however, presents a softer picture; less than half of tested students reached proficiency, which is a meaningful gap from math and reflects a common pattern where reading and writing development lags computational skill at the elementary level. A parent may want to look into how the school is supporting students who are not yet proficient in reading and writing, what interventions or small-group instruction are available, and whether the school has plans to close this gap in coming years.
The district context matters here. In May 2024, the Central Cambria School District voted to reconfigure grade alignments, moving all third through fifth graders to Cambria Elementary while keeping kindergarten through second grade at Jackson Elementary. This consolidation reflects declining enrollment across the district, projected to shrink by a meaningful percentage over the next several years. The shift also triggered the district's first property tax increase in decades, a lasting change for homeowners in Ebensburg Borough, Cambria Township, and Jackson Township. Jackson Elementary may eventually close; the architects' feasibility study flagged it as a candidate for future closure. For a family choosing schools now, this means Cambria Elementary is positioned as the district's main elementary hub going forward, and the consolidation has already taken effect as of the 2024-25 school year.
The Ebensburg area itself remains economically grounded in public-sector work, healthcare facilities, and retail employment, with the county courthouse and state residential facility anchoring employment. Housing costs are notably below the state and national benchmarks, making the area affordable for families on moderate incomes, though median home values have appreciated modestly in the last year. The community maintains active street life and event programming downtown and around its parks.
State assessment data was not available for English language arts and math proficiency trends across multiple years, so a reader cannot see whether performance has been moving up, down, or holding steady. The school does not report participation rates or average scale scores, which limits a full picture of test-taking completion and the depth of proficiency gaps. Enrollment, special education, and English learner numbers are reported; the school does not publish discipline, attendance, or detailed staffing data in these records.
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