Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Student Assessments topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
State Board hears 2025 assessment results: participation strong, math results mixed; SAT math shows sharp decline
Summary
Department staff told the State Board that participation in 2025 assessments exceeded 95%, but proficiency trends were mixed: math proficiency in grades 3–8 rose modestly to 34% (from 30% in 2022), while SAT math proficiency fell to 18% in 2025. Board members questioned whether SAT school day is an appropriate statewide proficiency measure.
At the Aug. 21 Delaware State Board of Education meeting, Dr. April McCray, director of the Office of Assessment and Accountability, presented initial 2025 assessment results and highlighted participation and proficiency trends across K–12 assessments and the SAT.
McCray said statewide participation in ELA and mathematics (grades 3–8) exceeded 95% in 2025 and that participation rates have been stable since 2023, restoring comparability across years. "Participation has been relatively stable since 2023, and it restores our data comparability and reliability across years and subgroups," McCray said.
On proficiency, McCray reported modest gains in grades 3–8 math—up from 30% proficient in 2022 to 34% in 2025—while ELA proficiency for grades 3–8 was largely unchanged. For high-school SAT results, McCray said evidence-based reading and writing (EBRW) was about 47% proficiency in 2025, rebounding to near 2022 levels, but SAT math proficiency declined from 24% in 2022 to 18% in 2025. McCray also noted SAT essay participation fell to roughly 89% while the EBRW and math participation rates remained about 95%.
Board members pressed department staff on whether the SAT administered on school day is the best statewide measure of college- and career-readiness. A board member asked whether universal administration inflates participation statistics with students who do not engage seriously with the test, potentially depressing proficiency rates. McCray responded that the state adopted the SAT as its statewide measure by consensus of chiefs of schools, that the SAT is now a computer-adaptive test aligned with the Common Core, and that universal administration ensures every student has access regardless of means. "One of the reasons why SAT school day is a positive in the state is because it provides access to the SAT to every single student in the state of Delaware regardless of means," she said.
Department staff said they will investigate bright-spot districts (for example, Cape Henlopen) to identify scalable practices—professional learning communities, high-quality instructional materials, supports for students with disabilities and targeted coaching—and will present financial and implementation details as those analyses proceed. Staff also described the state's balanced assessment system and said state summatives are one piece of evidence; they urged attention to interim and formative assessments for instructional use.
Board members suggested surveying students to understand participation choices and exploring alternative or supplemental state measures (capstones, portfolios, career-pathway certificates) that might better capture varied student outcomes while still meeting federal requirements. The board will review assessment results again at a strategic meeting on Sept. 4.
The presentation materials were distributed to board members in advance; staff asked board members to consult the slide packet for district-level breakdowns and subgroup data.
