The top reported proficiency rate is 76% in Science. The lowest is 47% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on George a Ferrell El Sch
George A. Ferrell Elementary School serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Picture Rocks, a small rural borough in southeastern Lycoming County. The school enrolls a small cohort of about that size spread evenly across its seven grades, with roughly that many students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly white, with minimal racial or ethnic diversity; data on students receiving special education services or learning English as a second language was not available.
The school sits on Court Street within the residential street grid of the borough itself rather than on a separate campus. Picture Rocks is a quiet, car-dependent village set against rolling hills near the edge of the Allegheny Mountains. It has no gas stations, restaurants, or commercial core to speak of; residents drive to neighboring Hughesville or Muncy for groceries and daily errands. The borough's civic anchors are Picture Rocks Park (used for swimming and tubing in Muncy Creek), Van Rensselaer Park with its athletic fields, two churches, the post office, and the school. The housing stock is older—late-19th and early-20th-century homes along Main Street mixed with 1980s and 1990s split-levels on the outskirts—and the population is essentially flat. A family moving here would inherit a modest property-tax baseline; the district raised its millage rate in 2024 and held it flat for the current year.
On state assessments, Ferrell's proficiency results are mixed. Reading proficiency for grades 3-8 sits at a mid-range level, while math proficiency is below the midpoint. Science proficiency, tested on a smaller cohort, is substantially higher. Across all tested subjects and grades combined, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile relative to other districts in Lycoming County, a strong positioning despite the softer math numbers. Trend data was not available, so it is unclear whether these results represent improvement, stability, or decline.
The school is part of East Lycoming School District, which serves Picture Rocks, Hughesville, and Lairdsville. The district has committed to a multi-year facilities upgrade cycle across all four of its schools: new playground equipment at the elementary level, renovations to the high school interior and auditorium, resurfaced courts and tracks, and expansion of the regional career and technical center. The district has also built an unusual energy portfolio combining solar, geothermal, and biomass to reduce long-term operating costs. Students completing sixth grade at Ferrell move on to district middle and high schools centered in Hughesville, about a short drive away.
Ferrell offers the typical elementary curriculum; no specialized programs, magnet offerings, or detailed course listings were reported. The school serves as both a neighborhood school and the primary civic institution in its small borough. A parent choosing this school is choosing a small, tight-knit setting in a rural, stable community where the pace is slow and the peer group is homogeneous. The academic profile is reasonable in the county context but shows room for growth in foundational math skills, something a parent may want to explore further with the school's teachers and administration.
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