The top reported proficiency rate is 30% in English language arts. The lowest is 11% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Richey Elementary School
Richey Elementary School sits on East Highland Avenue in Wilmington, part of the Red Clay Consolidated School District. It is a regular public school serving kindergarten through fifth grade, and its enrollment is moderate for an elementary building in this area. The student body is racially mixed, with white students forming the largest group and Hispanic students the second largest, followed by a smaller Black population and a handful of students identifying as Asian, two or more races, or American Indian/Alaska Native. Information on free or reduced-price lunch, special education enrollment, and English learner status was not available, so the economic profile of the families served here cannot be characterized from the data provided.
Academic results on Delaware's state assessments are reported for the most recent school year in math, English language arts, and science, with social studies available for the prior year. In math, roughly a quarter of tested students reached proficiency. English language arts was slightly stronger, with just under a third proficient. Science was the softest area, with only a small fraction of the tested group meeting the proficiency bar. Social studies from the year prior landed in between. The participation rate for most subjects was not reported. Compared with other schools and districts across New Castle County, Richey's overall proficiency sits below the midpoint, a fact a parent may want to explore further with school leadership to understand what supports are in place and what the improvement trajectory looks like.
The multi-year trend tells a more complicated story. English language arts proficiency was notably higher several years ago, in the mid-forties, before dipping sharply during the pandemic year and partially recovering since. The most recent result, though, represents another step down from the post-pandemic rebound. Math has followed a similar arc, with results that rose for a couple of years after the pandemic low before falling again this year to match that low point. The data does not explain what drove the recent decline, and the assessment system flags some comparability questions, so a parent asking about these numbers would be right to ask the school directly what changed and what the current intervention plan looks like.
Because Richey is an elementary school, there is no graduation rate, no college or career readiness data, and no advanced coursework to report. Those measures simply do not apply to this grade band. Course access, staffing ratios, discipline data, attendance and chronic absenteeism figures, and school locale classification were all missing from the available data, so those dimensions of the school environment could not be assessed here.
The surrounding community shapes the school's context in ways worth understanding. Wilmington is Delaware's largest city and serves as the state's corporate, financial, and governmental center. The economy, once anchored by chemical manufacturing through DuPont, has shifted toward national banking and finance, with many Fortune companies maintaining their corporate domicile in the city. The downtown core is compact and grid-patterned, with a revitalized Riverfront area, performing arts venues, restaurants, and galleries. Wilmington Train Station provides Amtrak and SEPTA service connecting directly to Philadelphia, and I-95 runs through the city. The housing market in Richey's zip code is more affordable than the state and national benchmarks, with typical home values well below the Delaware median and rents that compare favorably to the cost of ownership at current mortgage rates. For families weighing where to live, this part of Wilmington offers a lower cost of entry than much of the region.
At the district level, Red Clay is publicly reported to be transforming Thomas McKean High School into the McKean Innovation Campus, scheduled to launch in late summer of 2027, with a focus on industry-recognized credentials and restructured secondary education. That change does not directly affect Richey's elementary families today but signals a district actively rethinking its upper-grade pathways, which may matter as current students progress.
Richey is a school with a diverse student body in an affordable urban neighborhood, operating within a district that is investing in secondary innovation. Its current state assessment results are below the county midpoint and have declined from where they stood several years ago. Families considering Richey would benefit from asking school leaders about the academic recovery plan, the supports available across subjects, and how the school communicates student progress to parents throughout the year.
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