The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in Science. The lowest is 8% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Prince Hall Sch
Prince Hall School is a small elementary school in the Feltonville-Juniata area of North Philadelphia, serving students from pre-K through fifth grade. The student body is overwhelmingly African American, and all students at the school qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economic conditions of the neighborhood. The school sits in a high-poverty area where rental housing and home values are lower than the city's center, though rents and prices have edged upward modestly in recent years.
The school's academic performance in state testing is weak across the board. In reading (English Language Arts), proficiency among third through eighth graders tested sat in the single digits in the most recent school year. Math proficiency was similarly low, with only a small fraction of students scoring at grade level. Science, the most recent available data from a prior year, showed better but still below-benchmark results. These figures reflect broader challenges across the district, which has recently overhauled its reading and math curricula—implementing a science-of-reading approach to English instruction and Illustrative Mathematics district-wide—but has yet to reverse the pattern of students falling behind in core academics. Parents considering this school may want to look into what specific support structures or supplementary programs exist to help students catch up to grade-level benchmarks.
Enrollment is small, around 375 students spread across the pre-K and elementary grades, which can mean more informal school culture and closer relationships between staff and families. The demographic makeup is very concentrated: the school serves almost exclusively African American students with a small representation of other backgrounds. The school is a regular public school within the Philadelphia City School District, not a charter or magnet program, so it draws from its catchment area and follows the district's standard curriculum and policies.
The Philadelphia district is in the midst of significant change. The new reading and math curricula are now in their first full year of implementation, and the district has also initiated a major facilities master plan that will close, consolidate, or modernize dozens of schools over the coming decade. Families should confirm whether Prince Hall is among the schools affected by those reconfigurations. Beyond curriculum, the city of Philadelphia itself is experiencing modest but uneven growth, with investment concentrated in Center City and along major corridors; North Philadelphia neighborhoods like Feltonville have seen less of that activity in recent years. The city raised its commitment to school funding through property tax changes in 2025, increasing the homestead exemption to ease tax burden on homeowners, which has relevance for anyone considering buying or renting in the area.
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