The top reported proficiency rate is 16% in English language arts. The lowest is 3% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Edison (thomas A.) Charter School
Thomas A. Edison Charter School is a single-school charter district in New Castle County, Delaware, serving students from kindergarten through eighth grade. The student body is almost entirely Black, with only a small number of students from other racial or ethnic backgrounds. The school operates as an independent charter district, which means it functions with its own governance rather than as part of a traditional district bureaucracy.
The most defining fact about this school, for a parent trying to understand it, is that academic proficiency as measured by Delaware state assessments is very low across every tested subject. In the most recent reported year, English language arts proficiency sat well below what most schools in the county post, and math and science were lower still. Social studies results, reported by grade level in the prior year, were similarly low, though the eighth grade showed a somewhat higher rate than the earlier grades. When the school is placed among New Castle County's districts on an overall proficiency index, it lands in the bottom quartile.
There is a modest upward arc in the multi-year data. Math proficiency has climbed over the past several years from an extremely low starting point to a still-low but improved level. English language arts has moved within a narrow range, rising one year and dipping slightly the next without a clear directional trend. A parent weighing this school should know that the numbers have been moving in the right direction in math, but the starting point was low and the current levels remain well below county medians. A parent may want to ask the school directly what instructional strategies are driving the math improvement and whether similar approaches are being applied to reading and science.
Chronic absenteeism is a second area of concern. The reported rate places the school in the bottom quartile among county districts, meaning a substantial share of students are missing significant instructional time. High absenteeism and low proficiency often reinforce each other, and a parent would want to understand what the school is doing to improve daily attendance.
On the positive side, the school's charter was renewed for a five-year term following a formal review process, which secures its continued operation through that term. During that renewal, school leadership made a deliberate choice to reduce the authorized enrollment cap. They told the state that a smaller student body would allow for smaller class sizes, stronger tiered intervention support through a multi-tiered system of supports framework, and physical space to house additional mental health professionals. The school also indicated it was adding mental health staff as part of this process. For a family whose child would benefit from closer adult attention and counseling resources, these are real investments worth asking about.
Per-pupil spending sits in the middle range of the county, in the lower half, which suggests the school is not dramatically under-resourced relative to its peers but is also not at the top of the spending distribution.
Several data points a parent might expect are absent. Free or reduced-price lunch rates are not reported, so the economic profile of the student body cannot be confirmed from the available data. Special education and English learner rates are also missing. No graduation rate is reported, which is expected because the school does not serve high school grades. No locale brief or community economic context was available, so there is no housing or neighborhood information to draw on here. School environment details such as discipline data, course access, staffing ratios, and attendance policy specifics were not provided.
What the available picture shows is a small-to-mid-size K-through-8 charter school serving a predominantly Black student population, with state test results that are among the lowest in New Castle County, a chronic absenteeism rate that is also among the highest in the county, but a recently renewed charter and a leadership team that has chosen smaller enrollment as a lever for more individualized support. A parent considering this school should ask pointed questions about academic growth at the individual student level, what the mental health staffing looks like in practice, and how the school is addressing both attendance and core instruction. The publicly reported renewal documents suggest the school itself has identified these as priority areas, which is a starting point for that conversation.
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