Original Research by School Decision on First State School
First State School is a small alternative school in Wilmington, Delaware, serving students from kindergarten through tenth grade. It sits within the Red Clay Consolidated School District on West 14th Street, just outside the city's downtown core. As an alternative school, it occupies a distinct niche in the district's portfolio, designed for students whose needs may not be met in a traditional school setting. It is neither a charter nor a magnet school.
The enrollment here is very small, with only a handful of students per grade level and some grades represented by a single student. The student body is predominantly Black, with smaller proportions of White students, students of two or more races, and Hispanic students. No grade three enrollment appears in the data. The school does not report free-or-reduced-price lunch counts, Individualized Education Program rates, or English learner figures, so those dimensions of student need are not visible in the available records. A parent considering this school may want to ask the administration directly about how it identifies and supports students requiring academic, behavioral, or social-emotional assistance, since those details are not captured in the public data.
State assessment results are entirely suppressed across every tested subject and grade. The school appears in the Smarter Balanced math and ELA records for grades four through eight, the DeSSA science records for grades five and eight, and the DeSSA social studies records for grades four, six, and eight, but every proficiency rate, tested count, participation rate, and scale score is marked suppressed. This is consistent with the school's very small enrollment and its alternative designation, where small testing populations trigger privacy protections. A reader should not interpret the absence of results as a sign of weak performance; it reflects the nature of the school and its size. The comparison fact-set, which positions this entity relative to districts in New Castle County, also marks proficiency, graduation, and chronic absenteeism metrics as not applicable for the same reason. No multi-year academic trend data is available.
Because the school stops at tenth grade, there is no four-year graduation rate to report. Students who attend through the upper grades here would presumably transition to another setting to complete high school, though the data does not specify where. The school's grade band alone explains this gap.
Wilmington itself is Delaware's largest city and its corporate, financial, and governmental center. The downtown core is dense with national banks and financial institutions, and the city has shifted over decades from chemical manufacturing roots tied to DuPont toward banking and finance. Publicly reported sources describe a compact, grid-patterned downtown with a revitalized Riverfront area, restaurants, galleries, and performing arts venues. Amtrak and SEPTA service connects the city to Philadelphia, and interstate highways run through it. The city has an active planning framework and continues redeveloping former industrial land. Red Clay Consolidated School District, the parent district, is among Wilmington's top employers.
At the district level, Red Clay is preparing to transform Thomas McKean High School into the McKean Innovation Campus, with a planned launch in August 2027. Publicly reported district materials describe the campus as offering industry-recognized credentials and restructured secondary learning experiences. That change sits in the broader district rather than at First State School itself, but families whose children may eventually move into other district schools may want to follow how those secondary options develop.
What the data can show about First State School is limited. It is a very small alternative placement in an urban district, serving a predominantly Black student body across a wide grade range, with no reported academic outcomes, no graduation rate, and no disclosed indicators of student need such as poverty rate or special education enrollment. For a parent weighing this option, the most productive next step would be a direct conversation with the school about its instructional model, its student support approach, and how it measures progress for the specific students it serves.
See more original research from School Decision →