Charter School of New Castle

Charter School of New Castle is the sole school in the Charter School of New Castle district, serving 788 students in grades K-8 in New Castle, DE. This single-school district consistently ranks in the bottom third of Delaware schools, with its percentile ranking fluctuating between the 27th and 36th percentile over the past three school years, earning it one or two stars in state accountability ratings.

Academically, the school shows notable strengths in a few isolated areas but struggles with consistency. In the most recent testing year, 5th grade Social Studies proficiency reached 65.38%, actually beating the state average of 61.85%, while 8th grade ELA and 3rd grade Math also exceeded state averages in the prior year. However, these bright spots are overshadowed by persistent underperformance in mathematics, where proficiency gaps versus the state range from roughly 16 to 20 percentage points, with 5th grade math hitting a low of just 6.67% proficiency in 2024-2025. The data also reveals extreme year-to-year volatility—5th grade math jumped 15.7 points, while 3rd grade math dropped 19.9 points—suggesting small cohorts or inconsistent instructional quality. A troubling "middle school slide" emerges as well, with ELA gaps widening from about 8 points in 3rd grade to over 14 points by 7th grade.

Attendance and resources present additional challenges. The school's chronic absenteeism rate of 18.2% exceeds the state's 17.1%, and the student-teacher ratio of 22.5:1 is relatively high, potentially limiting individualized attention. Per-student spending of $14,089 (from 2018-2019) offers no recent comparison. Science remains a significant weakness, with 5th grade proficiency at 20.93% versus the state's 30.13%. For parents, the key takeaways are that this school offers occasional pockets of success—particularly in lower-grade ELA and 5th grade Social Studies—but families should be aware of the pronounced math struggles, the widening achievement gaps as students age, and the attendance concerns that likely compound these academic issues.