Summary:
Zip code 19973 is home to exactly one high school, Seaford Senior High School, which serves grades 9-12 with an enrollment of 960 students in the Seaford School District.
For parents considering this area, the most important takeaway is that Seaford Senior High School is facing significant academic challenges that have been worsening over the past three years. The school has consistently ranked in the bottom tier of Delaware high schools, dropping from 34th to 36th out of 41 schools between 2023 and 2026, and has maintained a 1-star rating throughout. Test scores are dramatically below state averages across every subject. In the most recent school year, only 15% of students were proficient in English Language Arts compared to the state average of 44%, and mathematics proficiency stands at a critical 2.8% versus the state's 18.2%. Science and social studies proficiency rates are also well below state levels. The school's graduation rate of 74% is nearly 15 percentage points below the state average, while the dropout rate of 8.9% is more than double the state's 3.9%. Chronic absenteeism at 16.3% is slightly better than the state average of 17.1% but nearly double the district average of 8.7%, suggesting attendance issues intensify at the high school level.
The trend is particularly concerning because most subjects showed year-over-year declines between 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, with ELA proficiency falling 30% and social studies dropping 38%. Only essay scores improved slightly. Since Seaford Senior High School is the only high school in its district, all district-level high school metrics reflect this single institution's performance. Despite spending $14,948 per student, the school's outcomes remain far below state benchmarks, raising questions about resource effectiveness. For parents, this school presents substantial academic risks, particularly in mathematics where proficiency is approaching zero, and the declining trajectory suggests urgent intervention is needed to reverse these trends.
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