The top reported proficiency rate is 84% in Math. The lowest is 71% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Hopewell El Sch
Hopewell Elementary serves kindergarten through third grade in Center Valley, a prosperous unincorporated community in Upper Saucon Township on the southern edge of the Lehigh Valley. The school sits on West Hopewell Road near Hopewell Park, part of the Southern Lehigh School District, which covers a cluster of townships in a high-income suburban region anchored by corporate office parks, higher-education campuses, and the Promenade lifestyle center.
The enrollment is small, with a substantial majority of students coming from white, affluent households. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school's racial and ethnic composition skews heavily toward white students, with smaller numbers of Asian, Hispanic, Black, and multiracial students. Data on special education and English learner populations was not available.
On the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment for the most recent year available, third-grade students posted strong results in math, with the vast majority meeting or exceeding proficiency. Performance in English language arts was solid though noticeably lower than math, with about seven in ten students proficient. Among Lehigh County school districts, Hopewell's overall proficiency index ranks in the top quartile. These are grade-band results only; the school does not serve grades where state assessments extend further into elementary or secondary ranges, so no graduation rates, comprehensive secondary testing, or attendance data exist for this entity.
A major change is underway for kindergarten families. Beginning the 2026-2027 school year, the district is replacing half-day kindergarten with mandatory full-day programming. The shift includes dedicated literacy and math blocks, recess, lunch, special area instruction, and play-based science and social studies. This is the first structural change of its kind in the district's kindergarten provision and will affect every incoming kindergartener with no half-day option.
Center Valley itself is a suburban, car-dependent community with pockets of walkability concentrated around the Stabler Pathways office and retail campus, home to Olympus Corporation Americas, Shift4, Penn State Lehigh Valley, and Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Hospital. The Promenade Saucon Valley serves as the area's main gathering and shopping hub, with recent tenant expansions and a major proposed mixed-use development called Promenade Park intended to create more walkable connections among currently separated campuses and neighborhoods. Home values in the area are well above state and national benchmarks, and household incomes rank among the highest in the region. The school district has held property tax growth low over recent years and was projected to maintain the lowest millage rate in the Lehigh Valley for the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
The broader district has also adopted a Science of Reading-aligned K-12 English language arts curriculum, rolling out the StudySync program across middle and high school grades. These curricular shifts reflect a strategic pivot toward research-based instruction across the district.
Parents considering Hopewell should anticipate a small, affluent school in a prosperous suburban setting with strong early-elementary proficiency, the full-day kindergarten transition starting next school year, and a district oriented toward structured, standards-aligned reading and writing instruction.
See more original research from School Decision →