The top reported proficiency rate is 49% in English language arts. The lowest is 46% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Forbes Road Jshs
Forbes Road JSHS serves grades seven through twelve in Waterfall, a very small unincorporated hamlet in the Appalachian foothills of northern Fulton County. The school is part of a single-building K-12 district that has remained essentially flat in enrollment, housing a combined student population across the entire county's tiniest district. The school sits in open countryside between Hustontown and Waterfall, with no walkable downtown nearby; the area is rural and distant, with a population density of roughly per square mile and car-dependent commuting.
The student body is small and predominantly white, with most families qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. The enrollment skews slightly toward the middle grades, with the six-grade band relatively evenly distributed. State assessment data was available for grades three through eight combined, which includes the school's seventh and eighth grade population alongside the district's elementary students. In that tested band, proficiency in English language arts came in just under half, while math proficiency was somewhat lower. Relative to the other districts in Fulton County, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint, though at modest levels overall. State testing data for high school grades and graduation rates were not available, as Pennsylvania does not report those metrics at the individual school level for public schools.
The absence of high school performance metrics or a graduation rate means a parent cannot see how the school's ninth through twelfth graders are progressing or whether they complete on time. A parent may want to contact the school directly for specific information about course offerings, college-preparatory pathways, career and technical programs, or any dual-enrollment or Advanced Placement opportunities that might exist at such a small school.
The wider context matters considerably. Waterfall and Taylor Township are experiencing slow population decline, with most residents long-tenured in their homes and few new families arriving. The local economy centers on agriculture, trades, and small business, with the school district itself among the handful of named employers. Housing values are below both the state and national median, and affordability is relatively favorable, though the district's school board advanced the first real estate tax increase in well over a decade for the 2024-25 school year after holding taxes flat for many years—a material shift for property owners evaluating whether to move into the area.
This is a genuinely rural, small-town school experience: a single campus where grades seven through twelve attend together with an elementary, a peer group of roughly students across all high school grades, and a landscape of farms and woodlots rather than a populated township center. Families choosing Forbes Road are choosing isolation and intimacy, stability over growth, and access to outdoor recreation like state game lands and Cowans Gap State Park. The modest test proficiency numbers and thin data on high school pathways suggest a school whose academic culture differs from more resourced or dense districts, and families should verify directly what programming and support the school offers before enrolling.
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