The top reported proficiency rate is 56% in Science. The lowest is 28% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Maple Avenue Ms
Maple Avenue MS serves grades six through eight in Littlestown, a small Adams County borough with a walkable historic core and a residential character that attracts commuters working in nearby Hanover, Gettysburg, and across the Maryland line. The school enrolls students who are predominantly white, with a substantial share qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting a mixed-income base within a rural-suburban setting. About a quarter of the school's students are bused from surrounding townships within the district.
The school's state testing results show uneven performance across subjects. In English language arts, roughly four in ten students reached proficiency on the 2024-25 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment. In math, the proficiency rate fell to roughly three in ten students—a soft spot that warrants close attention. Science proficiency, measured most recently in 2023-24, ran higher at about half the students tested. Compared to the other districts in Adams County, Maple Avenue's overall proficiency index sits in the bottom quartile, so families considering the school should understand that standardized achievement here trails the county median.
The school is currently in transition. The Littlestown Area School District is consolidating the middle school and high school into a single grades 6-12 secondary campus, with completion anticipated in early 2026. This means Maple Avenue's students will move to a new shared facility—a reshaping of their school experience that extends to curriculum and partnerships. The district has paired the consolidation with new graduation requirements for high school students, expanded electives for middle schoolers, and deepened college, university, and business partnerships, including connection to a newly constructed Adams County Technical Institute. For families with a child at Maple Avenue, this restructuring changes not only the physical environment but the range of pathways available and the peer group their child encounters daily.
The district approved a modest property tax increase in the 2024-25 budget to fund its share of the new technical institute, a recurring cost for homeowners tied to career and technical education expansion. Housing values in Littlestown have risen modestly, and modest residential development on the borough's edges reflects demand from buyers drawn by lower costs relative to nearby Maryland.
Parents evaluating Maple Avenue should recognize it as a middle school embedded in a district undergoing significant infrastructure and curriculum change. The math proficiency gap is a real consideration; a parent may want to look into what support structures the school offers students working below grade level and how the transition to the new facility will affect remediation and advancement pathways. The expanding partnerships and electives reflect an intentional shift toward broadened opportunity, but the school's current academic standing relative to its county peers is a baseline to understand before enrollment.
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