Statewide results show modest improvement, with larger gains in schools receiving focused support; overall proficiency remains below where students need it to be
The Delaware Department of Education today released the first phase of its 2026 statewide assessment and accountability results. Today’s release focuses on proficiency, showing whether students are meeting grade-level expectations, and includes results for students in grades 3 through 8 and SAT School Day results for students in grade 11. It is the first of several releases that will build toward the full Delaware School Success Framework, or DSSF, results on October 15.
Schools receiving targeted state literacy support showed some of the strongest gains in the 2026 results. Most schools receiving state-supported literacy coaching improved Grade 3 English language arts proficiency from 2025 to 2026. Among the eight schools with state literacy coaches and comparable Grade 3 results, all showed increases, averaging nearly 7 percentage points, compared with a 1 percentage point statewide increase. South Dover Elementary in Capital School District also receives state literacy coaching, but changes to its student population between 2025 and 2026 make a year-to-year comparison inappropriate. A 10th school, Banneker Elementary in Milford School District, was reconfigured and now serves students only through Grade 1.
The largest gains among the eight schools were at Red Clay Consolidated School District’s Johnson Elementary and Las Americas ASPIRA Academy charter school, where Grade 3 English language arts proficiency increased by 12 percentage points, followed by Gateway Charter School with an 11-percentage point increase.
These results give the department and local leaders reason to examine the relationship among literacy coaching, instructional materials, school leadership, classroom practice and implementation, and to apply lessons from improving schools to strengthen literacy instruction across the state.
Across grades 3 through 8, statewide results also showed modest improvement, especially in mathematics. English language arts proficiency increased from 41 percent to 42 percent, and mathematics proficiency increased from 34 percent to 35 percent. Grades 3 through 8 mathematics has now improved for four consecutive years, increasing from 30 percent in 2022 to 35 percent in 2026.
Overall proficiency remains below where students need it to be, and progress is uneven across schools, subjects and student groups. Additional data will be released over the coming weeks to provide information about student growth, attendance, college and career readiness, graduation rates, multilingual learner progress, school quality indicators and school accountability. Together, these measures will build a fuller picture of school performance through the DSSF. They do not replace or diminish the proficiency results released today.
In high school, Delaware uses the SAT School Day assessment, generally administered in grade 11. In 2026, 44 percent of students scored proficient or above in evidence-based reading and writing, compared with 47 percent in 2025. SAT essay proficiency increased to 43 percent, up 10 percentage points from last year.
High school mathematics remains one of Delaware’s clearest areas of concern. SAT mathematics proficiency remained at 18 percent for the third consecutive year, underscoring the need for stronger alignment among middle school mathematics, Algebra I, high school coursework and postsecondary expectations.
This year’s results also make clear where Delaware must accelerate improvement. Statewide proficiency remains below the goals in the department’s strategic plan. Grade 3 English language arts increased from 39 percent to 40 percent, compared with the state’s 2028 target of 53 percent. Grade 8 mathematics increased from 27 percent to 29 percent, compared with a 2028 target of 35 percent. And achievement gaps among student groups remain significant.
Delaware is also reviewing the future of its statewide high school assessment. With funding provided by the General Assembly, the department will work with educators and district leaders to explore a high school assessment approach that better aligns with Delaware’s academic standards, high school coursework, student pathways, opportunities to measure growth, and state and federal accountability requirements. The review is intended to strengthen the alignment and usefulness of Delaware’s high school assessment while maintaining transparent reporting of student performance.
“Statewide assessments are important because they tell us whether students are meeting grade-level expectations,” Secretary of Education Cindy Marten said. “This year’s results show modest movement, especially in grades 3 through 8 mathematics, but they also make clear that too many students are not where they need to be. A one-percentage point statewide increase is not the win. The more important question is what we learn from schools where students are moving faster and what we change where students are not making enough progress. Proficiency is an important part of the picture. Growth, attendance, graduation, multilingual learner progress and other measures will help us understand the broader accountability story, but they do not minimize the proficiency results released today.”
Across Delaware, assessment results help identify schools showing stronger outcomes and examine practices associated with improvement. Schools showing improvement point to several practices that deserve closer examination:
- Sustained implementation over time.
- Strong school leadership.
- Ongoing coaching and professional learning for educators.
- High-quality instructional materials.
- Regular use of student data to guide instruction and intervention.
The results include examples of schools and districts demonstrating different patterns of performance and improvement. Some stand out for consistently strong performance across subjects and student groups. Others show meaningful improvement over time or encouraging gains in high-need settings. School examples illustrate where improvement is occurring and where the department and local leaders should examine what changed in instruction, leadership, support and implementation. They are not evidence of statewide success.
Cape Henlopen, Appoquinimink and Caesar Rodney were among the strongest and most consistent district performers across subjects and student groups for the grades 3 through 8 assessments, while Milford and Christina showed strong combined gains in one year.
Milford’s districtwide proficiency increased 4 percentage points in English language arts and 3 percentage points in mathematics. Christina increased 2 percentage points in both subjects.
Providence Creek Academy and MOT Charter School were among the strongest-performing charter schools across both English language arts and mathematics, with student achievement statistically above the state average in both subjects. Providence Creek Academy also showed notable year-over-year improvement, combining strong overall performance with continued gains in student proficiency.
Christina School District: Encouraging gains
Christina School District showed encouraging signs of improvement in 2026, increasing districtwide proficiency by 2 percentage points in both English language arts and mathematics. Several elementary schools posted particularly strong gains, including Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, which increased English language arts proficiency by 11 percentage points and mathematics proficiency by 12.4 percentage points, and Brookside Elementary School, which increased English language arts proficiency by nearly 10 percentage points and mathematics proficiency by 11.2 percentage points.
These results will prompt school and district leaders to examine where leadership, instructional focus, coaching, high-quality instructional materials and classroom practice are aligning with stronger student outcomes, and to apply those lessons more broadly.
Richey Elementary School: Intentional school improvement
Red Clay Consolidated School District’s Richey Elementary School posted significant improvement in both subjects, increasing English language arts proficiency by 12.1 percentage points and mathematics proficiency by 13.9 percentage points.
Richey’s gains occurred alongside a sustained school focus on teaching and learning, including strong school leadership, targeted educator support, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support implementation and consistent attention to instruction. The school’s gains should be studied alongside the practices accompanying significant improvement.
Lake Forest High School: Sustained improvement over time
Lake Forest School District’s Lake Forest High School has shown sustained improvement over multiple years on the SAT School Day assessment. SAT evidence-based reading and writing proficiency increased from 32 percent in 2024 to 41 percent in 2025 and 44 percent in 2026. SAT mathematics proficiency increased from 13 percent in 2024 to 17 percent in 2025 and 19 percent in 2026. The school’s results should be studied alongside the sustained focus on instruction, student support and continuous improvement accompanying those gains.
“Our responsibility is not simply to publish data,” Marten said. “Our responsibility is to understand what the data are telling us and act on it. Where students are improving, we need to learn from those schools and expand what is working. Where students are not making enough progress, we need to strengthen support, improve implementation and hold ourselves accountable for better results. These assessment results are the beginning of that conversation, not the end.”
As Delaware builds toward the full DSSF results, the department is also working with districts, charter schools and other stakeholders to strengthen how the state supports schools and responds to different levels of need. That work will focus on creating a clearer, more differentiated approach to support, monitoring, and accountability, particularly when low performance persists over time. Any changes will be developed with stakeholder input and communicated well in advance of implementation.
Understanding proficiency and growth
Proficiency shows whether students met grade-level expectations this year. Growth shows how much students progressed academically over time, including students who have not yet reached proficiency. Both measures are important when evaluating how well schools are helping students learn.
Because growth follows student performance over time and requires additional validation, Delaware will release 2026 student growth results on September 15 as the next phase of its accountability reporting.
Statewide releases include:
- Today, August 18: Student proficiency results
- September 15: Student growth results
- September 22: School Quality and Student Success indicators, including on-track attendance for K-12, science proficiency in grades 5 and 8 and Biology, social studies proficiency in grades 4, 7 and 11, college and career preparedness for grades 9-12, and on-track in Grade 9
- September 29: Multilingual learner progress and graduation rates
- October 15: Delaware School Success Framework results
Many families have received their students’ individual assessment results, and families can access score reports through their Infinite Campus accounts. School and district assessment results are available through the Delaware Open Data Portal.
Media contact: Alison May, alison.may@doe.k12.de.us, 302-735-4006