Glasgow High School

Glasgow High School in Newark, DE, is a mid-sized public high school serving 908 students in grades 9-12 within the Christina School District. The school has a student-teacher ratio of 17.8, which is slightly higher than nearby schools, and it has consistently ranked near the bottom of Delaware high schools for nearly a decade.

Academically, Glasgow faces significant challenges. In the most recent school year, only about 19% of 11th graders were proficient in English Language Arts on the SAT, compared to the state average of 44%. Math proficiency was just under 5%, and science proficiency was about 8%. These scores are roughly half (or less) of the district averages. The graduation rate of 74.6% is well below the state average of 88.9%, and chronic absenteeism affects about 21% of students—though this is a notable improvement from the previous year's spike of 34%. For context, nearby Hodgson (Paul M.) Vocational Technical High School, just 2 miles away, posts a 97.4% graduation rate and a 12.1% chronic absenteeism rate. Even Newark High School, also in the same district, has nearly double Glasgow's ELA proficiency rate.

One striking finding is that Glasgow spends about $20,800 per student—higher than many higher-performing schools in the area. For example, Conrad Schools of Science, which ranks 4th in the state, spends only $12,754 per student yet achieves dramatically better outcomes. This suggests the issue is not a lack of resources but how they are used. There are small signs of hope: the chronic absenteeism rate dropped significantly, and the graduation rate has improved from 68.2% to 74.6% over the past few years. However, the school still has a long way to go to catch up to its peers, and the data points to a need for comprehensive, sustained intervention to better serve its students.