The top reported proficiency rate is 88% in Science. The lowest is 69% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Shoemaker El Sch
Shoemaker Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Macungie, a small walkable borough in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, about six miles southwest of downtown Allentown. The school sits on North Fairview Street in the lower elementary band, serving a mixed community with a growing share of Hispanic students and a quarter of the enrollment qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.
The school's test results show solid performance in math and science, with most students in grades three through five reaching proficiency on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment. Math proficiency runs in the high seventies. Science, where fifth graders were tested most recently, reached the high eighties. English language arts sits lower, near seventy percent proficiency, which suggests some students are not yet reading or writing at grade level. The school sits in the top quartile of overall proficiency when compared against other schools in Lehigh County. These are not the district's highest results, but they place Shoemaker above the middle ground for schools its size in the region.
The student body is roughly seventy percent white, with Hispanic students making up about one-sixth of enrollment and smaller shares of Asian, Black, and multiracial students. The school enrolls a small number of pupils across its six grades, with slightly larger cohorts in third, fourth, and fifth grade than in the primary years. Enrollment data for English learners or special education are not available in the publicly reported figures. The neighborhood surrounding the school is suburban and steadily developing; new home construction in the area is underway, particularly in adjacent Lower Macungie Township.
Housing in the Macungie area sits at moderate prices for the region, and rents are stable. The community anchors of the borough itself—Memorial Park, the farmers market, the library, and the Institute—are genuine gathering places, though the schools and many civic amenities are situated outside the historic downtown, in the surrounding township rather than within the borough boundaries itself.
Parents choosing Shoemaker should be aware of a significant restructuring under discussion in the East Penn School District. In November 2023, the board voted to realign the grade structure across the district, converting all elementary schools to kindergarten through fourth grade only and moving fifth and sixth graders to middle school. This plan was originally targeted for 2028-29 but was paused in August 2025 due to rising construction costs and fiscal pressures, leaving the final timeline uncertain. Until the district moves forward or abandons the plan, families cannot be sure which building their child will attend in fifth grade or how the cohort structure will change. The district is also raising property taxes at the maximum rate allowed under Pennsylvania law for multiple consecutive years, which is a material cost-of-ownership factor for any family considering purchasing a home in Macungie.
On instruction itself, the district has shifted its math curriculum toward i-Ready Classroom Mathematics and adjusted elementary literacy teaching to align with the Science of Reading, changes that reshape how students encounter these subjects day to day. For a school in this demographic range and proficiency band, Shoemaker offers a grounded elementary option rooted in a well-resourced district, though the district's period of structural and financial transition will affect what the school becomes in the next few years.
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