Seaford Senior High School

Seaford Senior High School is a public high school in Seaford, DE, serving 960 students in grades 9-12 as part of the Seaford School District.

Seaford Senior High School is currently ranked 36th out of 41 high schools in Delaware, placing it in the bottom 12% of the state. This makes it the lowest-performing school in its immediate area. Academic proficiency rates are a significant concern: only 15% of students are proficient in ELA on the SAT, compared to the state average of 44%, and math proficiency sits at just 2.78%—more than six times below the state average of 18.16%. The graduation rate of 74% is nearly 15 points below the state average, and the dropout rate of 8.9% is more than double the state's 3.9%. When compared to nearby Sussex Technical High School, just 9 miles away, the contrast is stark: Sussex Tech boasts a 95.6% graduation rate and 43.22% ELA proficiency. Even Laurel Senior High School, the next lowest-performing school in the region, has nearly double Seaford's math proficiency rate.

There are some positive signs worth noting. Chronic absenteeism has improved dramatically, dropping from 52.6% in 2021-2022 to 16.3% in 2024-2025—now actually below the state average. The school also shows relative strength in serving students from low socio-economic backgrounds, ranking in the 30th percentile for that subgroup compared to its overall 12th percentile ranking. However, academic performance has been on a downward trend, with ELA proficiency falling from 27.61% to 15% over the past few years. The student-teacher ratio of 21.3 is the highest among all nearby schools, which may be a contributing factor. While the attendance improvements are encouraging, the declining test scores and low graduation rates represent urgent areas needing attention.