The top reported proficiency rate is 43% in Science. The lowest is 12% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Drexel Hill Ms
Drexel Hill MS is a middle school serving grades 6 through 8 in the Upper Darby School District, located in a dense, walkable inner-ring suburb of Philadelphia. The school's enrollment is substantial, drawn from a community where all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is majority Black, with significant Asian, White, and Hispanic representation, reflecting the neighborhood's demographic diversity.
Academic performance on recent state assessments shows areas of concern that a parent should look into further with the school. On the 2024-25 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, the school's proficiency rate in math was low, and in English language arts it was roughly a quarter of students. The school performed measurably better in science, where proficiency was higher, though that data is from 2022-23. When compared against other districts in Delaware County, Drexel Hill MS sits below the midpoint on overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades. The school's test results position it among the lower-performing schools in its county peer group.
The Upper Darby School District, which operates the school, has undertaken several substantive steps to reshape middle school capacity and curriculum. In July 2024, the district broke ground on a new Clifton Heights Middle School designed to relieve longstanding overcrowding and eliminate outdated modular classrooms. The new school will house about a thousand middle-grade students in a modern, STEM-equipped facility with dedicated athletic fields and a walking trail. The district has also standardized mathematics instruction on enVisions Mathematics across grades K-8 and adopted National Geographic as the social studies curriculum provider at both middle schools, with a portion of social studies delivered online through Chromebooks. These changes mean students here can expect a common, standards-aligned academic experience across the district.
Drexel Hill as a place is a stable, established neighborhood of single-family homes, rowhouses, and small apartment buildings, older in character with tree-lined streets and a genuine walkable feel. Civic and commercial life is distributed along arterial roads like Burmont Road rather than concentrated in a downtown; the community sits within Upper Darby Township and lacks separate municipal governance. SEPTA trolley service runs through the neighborhood with multiple stops, and parks including Drexel Park and the Darby Creek corridor are within reach. Housing values in the zip code reflect a moderately priced suburban market, below both state and national benchmarks. The area is experiencing renewed development interest; Zillow has flagged Drexel Hill as potentially among the hottest neighborhoods in the Philadelphia metro market in 2026. The school district closed on purchase of the shuttered Delaware County Memorial Hospital site in August 2025 for redevelopment, which signals ongoing investment in the area.
Families considering Drexel Hill MS should weigh the school's current state testing results carefully and seek clarification from the district on intervention strategies and instructional support. The new standardized curriculum and the broader district's middle school capacity initiative suggest movement toward more consistency and smaller class sizes, which could matter for students who benefit from that environment. The community itself is well-established and transit-accessible, with the school drawing from a neighborhood that feels grounded and cared-for.
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