The top reported proficiency rate is 68% in Science. The lowest is 44% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Case Avenue El Sch
Case Avenue Elementary serves kindergarten through sixth grade in Sharon, a small post-industrial city on the Shenango River in western Mercer County. The school sits at the center of a community in managed decline and reinvestment, where population has fallen over decades and the city's age profile is aging, yet downtown Sharon has begun attracting small business investment and new apartment development in recent years.
The student body is wholly low-income. All students at Case Avenue qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the enrollment is small to modest for the grade band. The student population is roughly three-fifths white, with a substantial share identifying as Black, and a smaller contingent identifying as two or more races. Students of color make up nearly four in ten of the school's enrollment. Data on students with individualized education programs and English learners was not available.
On the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment in grades three through six, Case Avenue's performance is mixed. In English language arts, about half of tested students scored at proficiency or above. Mathematics proficiency is below that, at roughly four in ten students. In science, the school performed better, with roughly two-thirds of tested students proficient. Overall, the school's mean proficiency across tested subjects placed it in the top quartile among schools in Mercer County, a position anchored partly in the science result but showing that the school is outperforming the midpoint of its county peers.
Reading proficiency at about half is a soft spot worth watching. While the science performance is a genuine strength, the gap between science and math proficiency suggests the school may face particular work in numeracy. A parent considering Case Avenue may want to discuss directly with the school what specific supports and interventions are in place for students not yet meeting grade-level math benchmarks, and what the trajectory of improvement looks like over time.
Sharon City School District, the school's parent district, has faced structural budget pressure. The district raised property taxes for 2024-25 and then held them flat in 2025-26, while managing the loss of temporary pandemic-relief revenue. A family moving into Sharon should expect this fiscal tension to recur. On the positive side, the district has implemented the federal Community Eligibility Provision, so all students in Case Avenue receive free breakfast and lunch every day with no application required, a lasting household-budget benefit. The district also operates its own in-house cyber academy for families seeking a virtual option, available tuition-free to residents.
The school itself offers no special programs or designations noted in available data. Sharon itself is undergoing modest revitalization, with downtown businesses opening, riverfront public art events drawing crowds, and local investment in apartment buildings and retail, though the broader context remains one of slow growth and population loss. Home values in Sharon are low relative to state and national benchmarks, making the housing market accessible to families on modest incomes, though that affordability partly reflects the city's economic condition.
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