Three Centre County school districts received overall grades of B or B− in Niche’s latest county listing—the lowest marks among the districts included. Two share the lowest grade, B−.
The 2027 evaluations reveal some notable contrasts: one featured district earned A− marks for academics and teachers, while another has just brought two elementary school communities into a new building with dedicated spaces for STEM, life skills and emotional support.
These are comparatively lower grades in a listing where every district earned at least a B−.
Here’s what sits behind those letters—and what has changed since some of the underlying data were collected.
Penns Valley Area School District — Overall Niche Grade: B
Penns Valley serves communities including Centre Hall, Millheim and Spring Mills. Its current Niche profile lists a preschool-through-12th-grade span, 1,271 students and a student-teacher ratio of 14 to 1.
The district’s B is the highest overall grade among this selection, but its individual categories tell a more varied story.
A− Academics Within a B Overall Grade
Niche gives Penns Valley A− grades for both academics and teachers, along with a B+ for college preparation. Its C for clubs and activities and C− for administration are less favorable assessments within the same evaluation.
The profile reports 63% proficiency in math and 60% in reading, identifying Pennsylvania’s 2024–25 PSSA and Keystone testing program as the source.
Those results leave a substantial share of tested students below proficiency, even alongside the favorable academics grade.
For families, that combination is worth unpacking. The overall B does not mean Niche assigned a B to classroom instruction, and the academic category is broader than a single test result.
A child’s grade level, subject needs and available support will matter more directly than the districtwide shorthand.
A Reading Initiative Reaches Beyond School
Penns Valley announced Charge into Reading in August 2026, describing a community literacy initiative intended to make reading a regular, enjoyable part of life outside the classroom.
The district sought families, students, educators, businesses and other community members for a steering committee to develop reading opportunities and connect schools with local organizations.
Its announcement scheduled the first meeting for late September.
That gives families a specific initiative to follow as it develops: what activities emerge, who participates and how children can get involved. The announcement establishes the initiative’s goals; it does not yet establish an effect on reading achievement.
Bald Eagle Area School District — Overall Niche Grade: B−
Bald Eagle and Bellefonte share the same overall grade and appear here alphabetically. Neither received a lower overall mark than the other.
Bald Eagle’s service area stretches across northern Centre County, including Howard, Milesburg, Port Matilda, Snow Shoe and Unionville. Its roughly 343-square-mile footprint makes it geographically the largest district located entirely within the county.
Proficiency Results Leave Room for Improvement
The district’s Niche profile lists 1,489 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and a student-teacher ratio of 13 to 1. That ratio describes staffing across the district, rather than the number of children in an average classroom.
Niche reports 49% math proficiency and 48% reading proficiency, attributed to Pennsylvania’s 2024–25 PSSA and Keystone testing program. In that snapshot, fewer than half of tested students reached proficiency in either subject.
Its category grades include B for academics and teachers, B− for college preparation and B+ for clubs and activities. Athletics stands out with an A−.
The difference between those measures matters. Strong extracurricular opportunities can be part of a student’s experience while academic results still identify a clear need for improvement.
Career Training Extends the High School Experience
Bald Eagle students also have access to the Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology, or CPI, near Pleasant Gap. The institute serves high school students from Bald Eagle, Bellefonte and Penns Valley.
Its secondary programs include automotive technology, carpentry, culinary arts, dental assisting, medical science, networking, and welding and metal fabrication. The offerings combine classroom instruction with practical work in specific career fields.
For a teenager interested in a trade, health care or technology, that changes the conversation from a single district grade to an actual course of study.
Families can examine program entry requirements, scheduling, certifications and how technical coursework fits with graduation and college plans.
Those options do not erase the proficiency figures. They add an important dimension to what education through Bald Eagle can include.
Bellefonte Area School District — Overall Niche Grade: B−
Bellefonte serves the borough and Benner, Marion, Spring and Walker townships, according to the district’s description of its boundaries. It operates kindergarten through 12th grade.
Its Niche profile lists 2,579 students and a student-teacher ratio of 14 to 1, making it the largest of the three featured districts.
Academic Marks Are Stronger Than the Overall Grade
Bellefonte earned a B+ for academics, a B for teachers and a B for college preparation in Niche’s current evaluation. Its overall B− therefore should not be read as its academic category grade.
The profile reports 52% proficiency in math and 59% in reading, drawing on Pennsylvania’s 2024–25 testing program. Reading proficiency was seven percentage points higher than math proficiency in that reported snapshot.
Those figures identify a subject-level difference worth examining at individual schools. They do not show whether a particular student made strong progress during the year, or whether results differed substantially across grades.
A New Elementary School Changes the Daily Picture
For elementary families, a major development is already more immediate than the letter grade. Bellefonte celebrated the opening of its new elementary school in August 2026, bringing together the former Bellefonte and Benner elementary school communities.
WPSU’s reporting on the opening describes a $55.3 million, 98,000-square-foot building with a media center, STEM lab, art and music rooms, an interior courtyard, and dedicated life-skills and emotional-support spaces.
The former schools closed at the end of 2025–26, with students scheduled to begin classes in the new building on Sept. 1. That makes older descriptions of Bellefonte’s elementary buildings an imperfect guide to the current arrangement.
The new spaces are a concrete change in what students encounter. Whether they produce measurable academic improvements will require evidence collected after the move.
B-Range Grades in an A+ County Listing
State College Area, the fourth district in Niche’s Centre County listing, received an A+. That creates a visible gap between its overall grade and the B-range marks featured here, while still leaving every listed district above the C range.
Under Niche’s 2027 district methodology, overall grades combine academic results with factors including teachers, school culture and diversity, family feedback, resources, activities and sports.
They are Niche’s evaluations, rather than Pennsylvania accountability grades or test-score summaries.
Local opportunities also cross district boundaries. CPI is one example: students in all three featured districts can pursue technical education through the same regional institution, so a comparison confined to each district’s own buildings would miss part of the picture.
Timing deserves attention, too. The 2027 label does not mean every statistic describes the current school year: the proficiency figures cited here are labeled 2024–25, while Bellefonte’s new building and Penns Valley’s reading initiative arrived in 2026.
