The Pennington School is a private (independent), coeducational college preparatory school for day and boarding students in sixth through twelfth grades, located in Pennington, New Jersey, a small community in the northeastern United States midway between New York City and Philadelphia in Mercer County, New Jersey. The Head of School is Dr. William S. Hawkey, who assumed the position in July 2014. As of the 2019–20 school year, the school had an enrollment of 534 students and 108.6 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 4.9:1. The school's student body was 47.6% (254) White, 36.7% (196) two or more races, 6.9% (37) Asian, 5.2% (28) Black and 3.6% (19) Hispanic Pennington is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools, the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools, the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools, and the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1930; the accreditation expires in May 2025. History The Pennington School was founded in 1838 during the Second Great Awakening as the Methodist Episcopal Male Seminary, a college preparatory school for boys, in order to secure "the education of the physical, the training of the mental, and the grounding of the soul in character." Pennington officially became a coeducational institution, The Pennington Seminary and Female Collegiate Institute, in the fall of 1854. In March 1910, Pennington would again become a school for boys, reverting to the name Pennington Seminary. Shortly afterward, the school's name evolved to its present form, sometimes with the addition of "for Boys." It was not until 1972 that Pennington once again became a coeducational institution. In 1975, the Center for Learning, one of the nation's leading secondary school programs for bright children with learning disabilities, was created within the school to serve a small number of college-preparatory students. Academics The Pennington School offers a vigorous curriculum for students with strong academic ability and the desire to build a record of personal achievement appropriate for admission into some of the country's most demanding colleges and universities. Middle school students have their own faculty dedicated to teaching children of this age (sixth through eighth grade). Middle school courses include: Algebra, American History and Government Applications, Art-o-Rama, Computer Skills, Earth Science, English, French, Geometry, German,