Summary:
Zip code 19953 is home to just one elementary school, Hartly Elementary School, a small K-4 school in Hartly, Delaware, serving 240 students within the Capital School District.
For parents considering this area, Hartly Elementary offers a notably personalized learning environment with an excellent 11:1 student-teacher ratio and per-student spending of $16,264. The school's biggest strength is early-grade performance: 3rd graders significantly outperform state averages in both ELA (54% vs. 40% state) and math (48% vs. 43% state), and the school shines in social studies, with 5th graders hitting 73.81% proficiency—well above the 61.85% state average. Chronic absenteeism is also a bright spot at 15.9%, far better than the district's 26.1% and slightly better than the state's 17.1%. However, there is a concerning "grade-level cliff" pattern: while 3rd graders excel, 4th and 5th grade scores drop below state averages, particularly in 5th grade math (14.29% vs. 34.88% state) and science (16.67% vs. 30.13% state). The school's state ranking has slipped from 38th to 55th over three years, though it maintains a 3-star rating.
Compared to its district, Hartly Elementary is a clear standout—it outperforms the Capital School District in nearly every subject and grade, often by wide margins (e.g., 3rd grade ELA at 54% vs. district's 26.5%). The district's low overall ranking appears dragged down by other schools, not Hartly. The main takeaway for parents: this is a well-resourced, community-focused school with strong early literacy and social studies, but families should be aware of the upper-grade math and science challenges and ask about intervention strategies for those subjects.
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