Freedom High School (Pennsylvania)


Freedom High School is a large urban, public high school, located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Northampton County in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States. Freedom High School is one of the two public high schools operated by the Bethlehem Area School District. It is located at 3149 Chester Avenue, Bethlehem Township. In 2019, enrollment was reported as 1926 pupils in 9th through 12th grades, with 48.3% of pupils eligible for a free lunch due to the family meeting the federal poverty level. Additionally, 16.6% of pupils received special education services, while 5.4% of pupils were identified as gifted. The school ranks at number #387 in all of Pennsylvania High Schools. The school employed 103 teachers. Per the PA Department of Education, 1% of the teachers were rated "Non‐Highly Qualified" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The principal, since 2014, is Michael LaPorta.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2019, the school reported an enrollment of 1,926 pupils in grades 9th through 12th, with 930 pupils eligible for a federal free or reduced price lunch due to the family meeting the federal poverty level. In 2019, the School employed 103 teachers yielding a student-teacher ratio of 19:1. According to a report by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, 16 teachers were rated "Non‐Highly Qualified" under No Child Left Behind.
Freedom High School students may choose to attend the Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School for training in the construction and mechanical trades.

Graduation rate

In 2015, the District’s graduation rate was 83.75%.
;According to traditional graduation rate calculations:

2015 School Performance Profile

Freedom High School SPP score declined to 68.6 out of 100. Reflects on grade level reading, mathematics and science achievement. The PDE reported that just 57% of the Freedom High School's students were on grade level in reading/literature. In Algebra 1, just 32% of students showed on grade level skills at the end of the course. In Biology I, only 46% demonstrated on grade level science understanding at the end of the course. Statewide, 53 percent of schools with an eleventh grade achieved an academic score of 70 or better. Five percent of the 2,033 schools with 11th grade were scored at 90 and above; 20 percent were scored between 80 and 89; 28 percent between 70 and 79; 25 percent between 60 and 69 and 22 percent below 60. The Keystone Exam results showed: 73 percent of students statewide scored at grade-level in English, 64 percent in Algebra I and 59 percent in biology.

Extracurriculars

In 2007, senior Isha Himani Jain placed first in the Siemens Competition.

Athletics

Freedom competes in the East Penn Conference in the District XI athletic division of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association. It holds the record for the most Lehigh Valley Conference championships in boys volleyball.
In boys athletics, Freedom has football, basketball, golf, ice hockey, soccer, baseball, tennis, volleyball, lacrosse, swimming, wrestling and Diving teams. In girls athletics, Freedom has basketball, soccer, lacrosse, golf, cheerleading, tennis, volleyball teams, swimming, and diving teams.
The FHS football, soccer, and field hockey teams play their home games at Frank Banko Field at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium, which seats 14,000 and can accommodate up to 16,000 in the standing room section. Soccer and lacrosse teams also use the newly added Turf Field, which was built in 2016 as an alternate home stadium.

Notable alumni