Why Should Delaware Care?
For years, policymakers have debated why Delaware public school students have consistently scored low on standardized tests. The state’s 2026 assessment and accountability results showed some growth for third through eighth grade English language arts and math proficiency rates.
Delaware’s public school students continue to struggle academically, but kids who attend schools with specialized literacy coaches have shown signs of improvement.
According to annual proficiency scores released by the state Tuesday, less than half of Delaware’s third through eighth graders read and do math at a proficient level. And just 18% of 11th graders were proficient in math.
The scores, taken from the 2026 statewide assessment and accountability results, reflect an average for Delaware’s public schools across all three counties. They are the first of multiple performance releases coming from the education department in the coming weeks, which includes multilingual learner progress.
Tuesday’s report also comes as Delaware schools have been dogged for years by low standardized test scores and high rates of chronic absenteeism.
The proficiency scores showed that the highest performing traditional school district in Delaware was Cape Henlopen. The lowest was the Capital School District. Among charters, the highest performing school was Newark Charter while the lowest was Positive Outcomes Charter School in Camden.
Delaware Secretary of Education Cindy Marten says the scores show the state’s students are not where they need to be. But she said there are bright spots.
Students who attend nine schools in Delaware that received state-supported literacy coaches last year showed increases in their English proficiency rates.
Third graders at Johnson Elementary School in the Red Clay Consolidated School District and third graders at Las Americas ASPIRA Academy charter school saw their English proficiency increase by 12 percentage points.
The other schools with new literacy coaches saw more modest gains for their third graders, except for South Dover Elementary where reading proficiency dropped.
Marten said the results should not be seen as a “victory lap,” noting that the proficiency rates in these schools are still low.
But the gains for schools with literacy coaches are one of her “proof points.” The next step, she said, is to “scale and replicate” the literacy coach initiative into more schools.
“Lock it, load it, replicate it,” she said.
Overall, 42% of Delaware’s third through eighth graders scored proficiently in English on the state’s assessment, compared with 41% the year before. The same age group’s math proficiency crept up from 34% to 35%.
The report also included SAT results for 11th grade students, which showed that high school mathematics remains a concern for the state.
According to the report, Delaware’s SAT mathematics proficiency rate remained at 18% for the third consecutive year.
‘Sustained movement, not quick fixes’
Earlier this year, Marten unveiled what she said was the Department of Education’s first strategic plan in over a decade.
According to the plan, the department’s funding would focus on four central pillars.
Those include expanding access to early childhood education; supporting student well-being and teacher retention; improving student achievement and test scores; and transitioning to a school funding formula that would send additional dollars to schools with large numbers of low-income students or English-language learners.
At the time, Marten also announced the Delaware Department of Education’s target goals for 53% proficiency in third grade English, and 35% proficiency in eighth grade math by 2028.
During a legislative budget committee hearing earlier this year, Sen. Dave Lawson (R-Marydel) said he has heard similar sentiments for the last 14 years as test scores have declined.
“So if [performance metrics] aren’t accomplished, what are going to be your actions? Are you still going to be secretary?” he asked.
In order to meet Marten’s goals, Delaware’s third grade students’ reading proficiency would have to jump 13 percentage points within two years. Eighth graders’ math scores would have to increase by 6 percentage points.
Marten told Spotlight Delaware that Delaware students can meet those goals within the next two years, but reiterated that what she wants to see is “sustained movement, not quick fixes.”
“Not, ‘They hired this consultant, or they bought this program, and they went up 15%,’” she said.
More accountability to come
In recent years, Delawareans across the political spectrum have grown increasingly frustrated with the state’s education spending, compared to students’ test scores.
The concern is especially prevalent when comparing Delaware’s SAT math proficiency rate of 18% to the roughly 92% high school graduation rate in the state.
Marten said the fact that the SAT math proficiency rate has remained at 18% for three consecutive years means the state must look at how students are faring in middle school algebra and other earlier coursework, which impacts students’ understanding of more complex math principles later.
She also said greater accountability is needed.
To do that, state education officials are working with school districts, charter schools, and other stakeholders to discuss how Delaware can strengthen its support and responses to low proficiency.
“We’ve got to create a clearer and a more differentiated support system for monitoring and accountability as a state,” Marten said.
Her statements come just two months after Gov. Matt Meyer signed into law two bills that would lay the groundwork for Delaware to implement a new school funding system.
One of the bills, sponsored by State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Brandywine Hundred), would enable the Delaware Department of Education to begin implementing the hybrid school funding model.
The hybrid model will shift education spending away from a per-student basis to one that directs more dollars toward students with higher need.
The bill also includes a provision to mandate that no school receive less money under the model than it would have under the previous funding model. It also allows for the hybrid model to be implemented during the 2028 fiscal year.
It is not immediately clear whether any financial accountability mechanism will be in place under the new funding model.
But, because the new formula offers tiers of support, there will be “real action” taken if a school continues to underperform “for so many numbers of days, weeks, months, years,” Marten said.
Marten did not specify what those actions may look like, but said the Delaware Department of Education’s responses to districts’ proficiency rates would be made available to the public.
“When you provide the support and the funding, which we’re doing, you’re going to move, and if you’re not moving, you get another treatment from the state,” she said.
