The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in Science. The lowest is 14% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Lehman Intermediate Sch
Lehman Intermediate School serves grades six through eight in Dingmans Ferry, an unincorporated community in Delaware Township tucked into the Pocono Mountains along the Delaware River. The school is part of the East Stroudsburg Area School District, which encompasses both Dingmans Ferry and East Stroudsburg and is currently navigating significant structural questions about enrollment and facility use.
The immediate context shapes what a family is choosing. Dingmans Ferry itself is rural and residential, built around privately owned lake-community subdivisions and forested terrain rather than a town center. There is no downtown; the school sits on a campus separate from township civic life. Residents drive to get around; the area has no public transit. The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area frames the place, constraining sprawl and channeling the local economy toward tourism and outdoor recreation. Housing in the area sits below the state benchmark, and the median home price reflects modest affordability compared to the national average. A substantial share of students at Lehman qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which aligns with the economic profile of the surrounding community.
The student body is diverse. The enrollment includes a meaningful share of Black students, a sizable Hispanic population, and a notable proportion of American Indian and Alaska Native students. White students make up a plurality. Two-person-or-more multiracial students form another cohort. The school serves a working-class community with significant economic need.
On academics, the picture is uneven. In English language arts, about two-fifths of students tested achieved proficiency in the most recent year. In science, tested the year prior, roughly half of students met the proficiency bar. Mathematics is the notable soft spot: only a small fraction of tested students met proficiency, marking a substantial gap in this subject. When the school is positioned against other districts in Pike County on overall proficiency across tested subjects, it falls into the bottom quartile, a meaningful underperformance relative to county peers. A parent may want to look into further detail with the school about what structures support struggling math learners and what intervention or remediation pathways exist.
The district itself faces headwinds that matter for families considering the school. Enrollment is declining across the district. The district is in the midst of a feasibility study examining major restructuring options: consolidating its two high schools into one, realigning attendance zones, and potentially selling a building. These conversations are driven by aging facilities and unequal access to some academics and sports across buildings. At the same time, East Stroudsburg Area received the largest tax equity supplement of any Pennsylvania district in 2024, a one-time injection that eases budget pressure but is not permanent, leaving long-term funding uncertainty. The district is also piloting a co-teaching model in early grades pairing special education and general education teachers in the same classroom, a pedagogy shift that rolled out this year and will expand next year.
For a family in Dingmans Ferry, Lehman offers the intermediate grades in a rural, forested setting where peers attend from lake-community neighborhoods scattered across Delaware Township. The academic profile shows strength in language arts and science but weak performance in mathematics, with the school scoring below its county neighbors overall. The broader district context suggests the institution is in transition, managing enrollment loss and weighing structural changes that could affect where and how middle and high school students are placed in coming years.
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