Christiana High School

Christiana High School in Newark, DE, serves 1,425 students in grades 6-12 as part of the Christina School District. The school has made a remarkable turnaround over the past decade, climbing from near the bottom of state rankings to a solidly mid-tier position, and now ranks 21st out of 41 high schools in Delaware.

The most striking feature of Christiana High School is its exceptional middle school program (grades 6-8), which outperforms both district and state averages by wide margins. In 7th grade English Language Arts, for example, 94.19% of students are proficient—more than double the state average of 43.4%. Math scores are similarly impressive, with 86.05% of 7th graders proficient versus 31.64% statewide. This performance even surpasses that of Conrad Schools of Science, a top-4 ranked school, where only 67.07% of 7th graders meet ELA proficiency. The school also keeps chronic absenteeism at 17.0%, below the state average and significantly better than nearby Penn (William) High School (37.0%) and McKean (Thomas) High School (35.0%).

However, the strong middle school foundation doesn't fully carry into high school. By 11th grade, SAT scores lag state averages—36.95% proficient in ELA versus 44.02% statewide, and 27.68% in essay writing versus 43.01%. The graduation rate of 77.0% also falls well below the state's 88.9%, though it exceeds the district average of 73.2%. Within the district, Christiana still outperforms its sister schools on nearly every metric, including science proficiency (29.41% versus 15.15% at Newark High School and 8.07% at Glasgow High School). With the highest per-student spending in the area at $22,171, the school has resources to build on its middle school success, but targeted efforts are needed to ensure those gains translate into high school achievement and higher graduation rates.