The top reported proficiency rate is 57% in Science. The lowest is 36% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Dr David W Kistler El Sch
Dr. David W. Kistler Elementary serves kindergarten through fifth grade in Wilkes-Barre, a mid-sized city in northeastern Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley. The school sits in a community with a substantial downtown revitalization effort underway—mixed-use apartments, adaptive reuse projects, and two college campuses integrated into the walkable downtown core. Wilkes-Barre's economy centers on higher education and healthcare, with major employers including Wilkes University, King's College, and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
The school enrolls students from a neighborhood with high poverty. All students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting broader economic conditions in the area. The enrollment is relatively stable across all grades served. The student population is predominantly Hispanic, with substantial representation of Black, multiracial, and white students; Asian and Native American enrollment is minimal. The school has no reported data on students with IEPs or English learners, so parents may want to ask the school directly about these supports and how they are staffed and delivered.
Academic results show mixed performance. In math, about one-third of tested students (grades three through five) met proficiency. In English language arts, the result was comparable, with roughly one-third meeting the standard. Science performance was stronger, with about half of tested students proficient when last assessed. The overall proficiency index places this school in the top quartile among districts in Luzerne County, though that comparison reflects county-level variation; the absolute proficiency rates remain modest.
The Wilkes-Barre Area School District, which includes Kistler, approved a 2024-25 budget with no tax increase and pursued an enhanced Homestead Exemption to deliver actual property-tax relief to homeowners. The district also allocated funds to hire additional teachers and reduce elementary class sizes, alongside a plan to expand a STEM Academy program. A district-wide capital renovation program is upgrading facilities throughout the system without new borrowing, expected to complete within the next couple of years. On the high school front, the district consolidated its three historic city high schools into a single new Wilkes-Barre Area High School in Plains Township, opened for the 2021-22 school year; every secondary student now attends there.
The median home value in the area is below both state and national figures, and rental affordability ratios suggest monthly rent is manageable relative to household income. For a parent evaluating Kistler, the key questions turn on whether the modest academic proficiency levels—and the school's poverty concentration—align with what their child needs, and whether the district's stated efforts to hire more staff and lower class sizes will materialize and reach this elementary school. The school's position in a revitalizing downtown with increasing housing activity may matter to families whose circumstances are shifting or who value walkable neighborhoods.
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