The top reported proficiency rate is 82% in Science. The lowest is 44% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Lackawanna Trail El Ctr
Lackawanna Trail Elementary Center serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Factoryville, a small rural borough in Wyoming County's Endless Mountains region. The school sits on College Avenue in the civic heart of town, within walking distance of the library, borough hall, and the campus of Keystone College. It enrolls a student body of modest size, distributed fairly evenly across its grade band.
Demographically, the school's enrollment is predominantly white, with a small share of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. About half of the school's students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting significant economic diversity in the attendance zone and marking this as a school serving families across the economic spectrum of a rural county.
Academic performance shows a mixed picture. In the most recent state math assessment, the school's proficiency rate came in below half of tested students in grades three through eight. English language arts proficiency was lower still, with less than half reaching proficiency. Science, tested in the prior year, presented a notably stronger result. When proficiency rates across all tested subjects are averaged together, the school's overall proficiency index places it in the top quartile among districts in Wyoming County, the comparison set available for this school.
The district has undertaken a significant curriculum initiative under its 2025-2028 comprehensive plan. Staff are completing K-12 curriculum mapping for English language arts and math using the Atlas platform, with the goal of achieving stronger alignment with Pennsylvania Core Standards and ensuring evidence-based instructional practices across both elementary and secondary schools. This is an ongoing, structural change in how teaching is designed and delivered. The Lackawanna Trail School District has also adopted modest annual property tax increases in both its Lackawanna and Wyoming County sections of the attendance zone to fund salary growth, healthcare, and rising cyber charter school costs. Families considering relocating into the district should factor in this pattern when calculating long-term cost of ownership.
A new Wellness Center opened in mid-2025 at the district's junior-senior high school, funded by donors and featuring a weight room, athletic training facilities, locker rooms, and additional instructional space. The elementary school itself benefits from proximity to Christy Mathewson Park, a recently upgraded recreational facility directly behind the school with a baseball field, basketball and pickleball courts, and walking trails. The broader Factoryville context includes a slowly declining population and minimal new housing construction, though older stock predominates in the downtown and larger residential properties sit outside the borough. Keystone College remains the dominant local employer and economic anchor, though it weathered an accreditation crisis in 2024 and early 2025 before retaining status under monitoring.
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