Lake Forest School District

The Lake Forest School District in Delaware serves approximately 3,644 students across six schools—four elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school—spanning grades K-12 in the Felton, Harrington, and Frederica areas, and currently holds a 4-star rating, ranking 11th out of 34 districts in the state.

For parents, the standout school is clearly Lake Forest North Elementary School, which dramatically outperforms its K-3 counterparts. In 3rd grade, North's ELA proficiency is 62.5% and math is 63.11%, compared to Lake Forest South Elementary School (38.1% ELA, 45.71% math) and Lake Forest East Elementary School (33.66% ELA, 43.56% math)—a gap of nearly 30 percentage points in ELA between North and East. North also has the district's lowest chronic absenteeism at 10.8%, while East has the highest per-student spending ($15,209) yet the lowest performance. Lake Forest Central Elementary School (grades 4-5) is a consistent 3-star performer, with 5th-grade scores above state averages in both ELA (51.31%) and math (39.77%).

The bigger concern is Lake Forest High School, which has slipped to a 2-star rating with a chronic absenteeism rate of 31.6%—nearly double the state average—and poor science (21.49%) and social studies (17.82%) proficiency. Chipman (W.T.) Middle School shows a notable strength in 7th-grade social studies (69.45% vs. 59.85% state), but math proficiency slides steadily from 50.81% in 3rd grade to just 19.21% by 11th grade. Despite these challenges, the district's graduation rate (90.3%) exceeds the state average, and its dropout rate (3.0%) is below state levels. The middle school years appear to be the critical intervention point, as students lose significant ground between elementary and high school.