The top reported proficiency rate is 11% in Social studies. The lowest is 1% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on The Bayard School
The Bayard School sits on South duPont Street in Wilmington, serving first through eighth graders as part of the Christina School District. It is a regular public school, not a charter or magnet, and its enrollment is moderate for a school covering eight grade levels. The student body is predominantly Black, with a large Hispanic contingent and a small white population. Free-or-reduced-price lunch data, special education rates, and English learner figures were all missing from the available data, so the economic profile of the student population cannot be characterized here. A parent may want to ask the school directly about these indicators.
On state assessments, proficiency is very low across every subject Delaware measures. In math, only a tiny fraction of tested students reached proficiency. English language arts results are somewhat higher but still represent only a small share of students meeting the bar. Science proficiency is near zero, with only a single student testing proficient among those assessed. Social studies, reported by grade level for the prior year, shows roughly one in ten students proficient in fourth and sixth grades, while eighth-grade results were suppressed. Looking back over roughly a decade of data, math proficiency has stayed in the low single digits every year, and ELA has hovered in a similar range, never breaking into double digits for long. This is a persistent pattern, not a one-year dip. The school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile relative to districts across New Castle County, which is the comparison set used here. A parent considering this school should treat these results seriously and ask school leadership directly what intervention strategies are in place and how growth is being measured for individual students.
Because the school does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that absence reflects the grade configuration rather than a gap in the data. Chronic absenteeism, discipline, course access, and staffing information were not available. Program offerings, Title I status, and locale designations were also absent from the data provided. These are the kinds of details a family would want to request from the school or district before forming a full picture of the day-to-day environment.
Wilmington is Delaware's largest city and its corporate, financial, and governmental center. The downtown core is compact and grid-patterned, with a revitalized Riverfront area, restaurants, galleries, and venues like The Grand Opera House. The city sits along the Amtrak Northeast Corridor with a station downtown, and I-95 runs through it. Publicly reported information describes the Christina School District as one of the larger employers in the city, operating schools across the broader Wilmington area rather than from a single campus. The Bayard School is part of that distributed network.
The surrounding housing market is relatively affordable compared with state and national benchmarks. Home values in the school's zip code sit well below the Delaware statewide figure, and rents are also modest. The price-to-income ratio suggests buying a home here is more attainable than in many parts of the state, though current mortgage rates keep monthly costs elevated. Rents have been rising modestly year over year, while home values have been roughly flat. For a family weighing housing costs against school quality, the area offers lower barriers to entry on the housing side.
At the district level, the Christina School District recently underwent a county-wide property reassessment that substantially increased its tax base. The district plans to raise total tax receipts while reducing the nominal tax rate by a factor matching the assessment increase, a restructuring that will affect what homeowners pay annually. Families living in the district should expect this to show up on their property tax bills in the coming year.
The Bayard School is a school where academic results, by the measures the state reports, have been consistently weak for years. The housing market around it is accessible, the city has genuine cultural and transit assets, and the district is going through a fiscal restructuring that may change local school funding dynamics. What the data does not show is what happens inside the building day to day, what supports exist for students working below grade level, and whether any turnaround effort is underway. Those are the questions a parent would want to bring directly to the school.
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