Delaware school board elections, 2014

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2014 School Board Elections

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Elections Information

Election Dates • 2014 Elections • Poll Opening and Closing Times

A total of five Delaware school districts among America's largest school districts by enrollment held elections in 2014 for six seats. Each district held its election on May 13, 2014.

Here are several quick facts about Delaware's school board elections in 2014:

• An average of 1.67 candidates ran for each board seat up for election in 2014 in Delaware’s largest school districts by enrollment, which was lower than the national average of 1.89 candidates per seat.
• One third of the school board seats on the ballot in 2014 were unopposed. This was a slightly higher percentage than the 32.57 percent of school board seats that were unopposed nationally.

• All of the incumbents whose seats were on the ballot ran for re-election in 2014, and all of them successfully retained their seats.
• As incumbents took 100 percent of school board seats in Delaware, no newcomers were elected. Nationally, newcomers took 38.19 percent of school board seats in 2014.
• The largest school district by enrollment with an election in 2014 was the Christina School District with 17,190 K-12 students.
• The smallest school district by enrollment with an election in 2014 was the Appoquinimink School District with 9,319 K-12 students.
• The Christina School District had the most seats on the ballot in 2014 with two seats up for election.
• Four districts were tied for the fewest seats on the ballot in 2014 with one seat up for election in each district.

The districts listed below served 62,848 K-12 students during the 2010-2011 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Click on the district names for more information on the district and its school board elections.

2014 Delaware School Board Elections
District	Date	Seats up for election	Total board seats	Student enrollment
Appoquinimink School District	5/13/2014	1	5	9,319
Brandywine School District	5/13/2014	1	7	10,657
Christina School District	5/13/2014	2	7	17,190
Colonial School District	5/13/2014	1	7	9,871
Red Clay Consolidated School District	5/13/2014	1	7	15,811

State profile

Demographic data for Delaware
	Delaware	U.S.
Total population:	944,076	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	1,949	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	69.4%	73.6%
Black/African American:	21.6%	12.6%
Asian:	3.6%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.7%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	8.7%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	88.4%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	30%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$60,509	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	13.9%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Delaware. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Delaware

Delaware voted for the Democratic candidate in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, one is located in Delaware, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties. As of May 2017, eight state House districts and five state Senate districts intersected with a Pivot County in Delaware. The state has one at-large congressional district.

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Delaware had one Boomerang Pivot County, 4.00% of all Boomerang Pivot Counties.

More Delaware coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Delaware
• United States congressional delegations from Delaware
• Public policy in Delaware
• Endorsers in Delaware
• Delaware fact checks
• More...

Academic performance

See also: Public education in Delaware

Education terms
For more information on education policy terms, see this article.
School board elections portal Glossary of education terms School choice on the ballot Education on the ballot

NAEP scores

See also: NAEP scores by state

The National Center for Education Statistics provides state-by-state data on student achievement levels in mathematics and reading in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Delaware's scores were lower than three of its neighboring states (Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) during the 2012-2013 school year.

Percent of students scoring at or above proficient, 2012-2013
	Math - Grade 4	Math - Grade 8	Reading - Grade 4	Reading - Grade 8
Delaware	42%	33%	38%	33%
Maryland	47%	37%	45%	42%
New Jersey	49%	49%	42%	46%
Pennsylvania	44%	42%	40%	42%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%

Graduation, ACT and SAT scores

See also: Graduation rates by groups in state and ACT and SAT scores in the U.S.

The following table shows the graduation rates, average composite ACT and SAT scores, and rankings for Delaware and surrounding states for 2012 and 2013.

Comparison table for graduation rates and test scores*
State	Graduation rate, 2012		Average ACT composite, 2012		Average SAT composite, 2013
	Percent	Quintile ranking**	Score	Participation rate	Score	Participation rate
Delaware	80%	Third	22.6	14%	1351	100%
Maryland	84%	Second	22.1	21%	1483	73%
New Jersey	86%	First	23.4	20%	1521	78%
Pennsylvania	84%	Second	22.4	18%	1480	71%
U.S. average	80%		21.1		1498
*Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Rate (except for Idaho, Kentucky, Oklahoma, which did not report “Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate,” but instead used their own method of calculation). **Graduation rates for states in the first quintile ranked in the top 20 percent nationally. Similarly, graduation rates for states in the fifth quintile ranked in the bottom 20 percent nationally. Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express

Dropout rate

See also: Public high school dropout rates by state for a full comparison of dropout rates by group in all states

The high school event dropout rate indicates the proportion of students who were enrolled at some time during the school year and were expected to be enrolled in grades 9–12 in the following school year but were not enrolled by October 1 of the following school year. Students who have graduated, transferred to another school, died, moved to another country, or who are out of school due to illness are not considered dropouts. The average public high school event dropout rate for the United States remained constant at 3.3 percent for both school year 2010–11 and school year 2011–12. The event dropout rate for Delaware was higher than the national average at 3.6 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 3.5 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

See also

Delaware	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Delaware List of school districts in Delaware	School board elections, 2014 List of school board elections in 2014	School boards in session: 2014 elections by the numbers 2014 incumbency advantage