Summary:
Zip code 19734 is home to just one middle school, Cantwells Bridge Middle School, which serves grades 6 through 8 and is part of the highly regarded Appoquinimink School District, a top-5 ranked district in Delaware with a 5-star rating.
As the only middle school in this area, Cantwells Bridge stands out for its strong overall performance and excellent attendance. The school has consistently ranked in the top 30% of Delaware middle schools over the past three years, earning a 4-star rating each year. With 852 students and a student-teacher ratio of 17.8, it is a large school, but its chronic absenteeism rate of just 10.1% is significantly better than both the district (14.0%) and state (17.1%) averages, indicating a positive and engaged school culture. Academically, the school shines brightest in Social Studies, where 6th and 7th graders post exceptional proficiency rates of 70.97% and 78.21%, far exceeding state averages. English Language Arts is also a clear strength, with all grades outperforming the state by 8-10 percentage points, and the school showed year-over-year improvement in ELA across every grade level.
However, there are areas for growth. Mathematics proficiency, while above state averages, lags behind the school's own ELA and Social Studies scores, particularly in 7th and 8th grades where it falls below the district average. An "8th grade dip" is evident across all subjects, with 8th graders posting the lowest proficiency rates in ELA, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Science is a notable concern, as 8th-grade proficiency dropped sharply from 23.38% to 18.44%, only slightly above the state average but well below the district's 24.06%. While Cantwells Bridge generally outperforms the state, it does not always match its own high-achieving district peers, suggesting room for improvement in math and science to fully align with the excellence seen in its humanities and literacy programs.
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