The top reported proficiency rate is 42% in English language arts. The lowest is 22% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Dunmore Jshs
Dunmore JSHS serves grades seven through twelve in a single school serving the borough. The enrollment sits just under seven hundred students across all six grades, with a spread roughly balanced between the junior-high and high-school spans. Every student in the enrollment qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, which indicates a population where economic hardship is nearly universal. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic, Asian, and Black students. The school is a regular public school, not charter or magnet, and sits on Warren Street in a borough that adjoins Scranton.
Dunmore itself is a mixed-character working-class borough with lingering coal-town architecture and street layout, but now home to residential neighborhoods, commercial strips, and significant industrial uses including the Keystone Industrial Park and Pennsylvania's largest landfill. The downtown, called Dunmore Corners, has seen recent investment: two senior housing projects totaling nearly ninety units broke ground or opened in 2025 and 2026, anchored around East Drinker Street. The high school sits near the commercial core, within walking distance of these districts and accessible by county transit. The borough's population has declined modestly from past peaks but stabilized. Home prices in the area are below the state average and have declined over the past several years. Housing costs as a share of household income sit below the national benchmark, suggesting affordability relative to incomes locally, though most students here qualify for meal assistance.
In Pennsylvania's tested grades (three through eight), the school's proficiency performance is weak. In English language arts, less than half of tested students scored at the proficient level or above. In mathematics, the proficiency rate was substantially lower, with only a small fraction meeting the proficiency bar. On the overall proficiency index used to compare schools within Lackawanna County, Dunmore JSHS ranks in the bottom quartile among the county's districts. This positioning reflects a pattern of low attainment; parents may want to look into the school's support systems, curriculum approaches, and staffing continuity to understand what is driving these results and what interventions are in place.
State testing data for high-school grades were not available in the data provided, so no snapshot of achievement among grades nine through twelve exists in this summary. Similarly, a graduation rate for the high school is not reported here, leaving the student progression and completion picture incomplete. Data on chronic absenteeism, attendance, special education enrollment, English learner enrollment, and staffing were not available. The district brief turned up no major recent policy changes or referenda that would affect how the school operates.
The school is embedded in a county district (Dunmore School District) and serves a single borough. For a family considering this school, the key question is what academic support and pathway options exist for a student population where proficiency is low and economic stress is high. The school is accessible by car and public transit, and Dunmore offers a tight-knit residential setting with local parks, community recreation, and downtown foot traffic. But the academic foundation here requires direct conversation with school leadership about intervention, remediation, career pathways, and what trajectory the district envisions for students entering at seventh grade and exiting at twelfth.
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