New Hampshire Students Remain in the Top Tier of the Nation's Report Card

The 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report shows that New Hampshire students continue to perform above the national average. Approximately 4,500 New Hampshire students from grades 4 and 8 participated in the NAEP Reading and Mathematics assessments in 2017. Grade 4 students were the third highest achieving in reading and the fifth highest in mathematics among all states. Grade 8 students were the fourth highest achieving in reading and the third highest in mathematics among all states.

The NAEP Assessments in Reading and Mathematics are designed to compare student achievement among states and other jurisdictions by placing the state standards onto a common scale defined by NAEP scores. The assessment report known as "The Nation's Report Card" presents aggregate state results as percentages of students performing at or above three achievement levels (Basic, Proficient, and Advanced). Students scoring at or above Proficient demonstrate solid academic content knowledge.

"We are very pleased to see that New Hampshire remains one of the highest achieving states in the nation. This is a reflection of the engagement our New Hampshire families have in the education of their children and of the hard work and investment our teachers have made in the success of their students," commented Frank Edelblut, Commissioner of Education.

While the overall results were fairly stable or down slightly, the achievement gap for minority, poverty, and special education students has remained the same or worsened since 2003.

"We need to ask ourselves if the way we do school is really as effective as it can be when we get less than half of our students to proficiency with far larger and persistent achievement gaps occurring with our minority, poverty, and special education students. We now have an opportunity to close the gap for all our students," commented Frank Edelblut, Commissioner of Education.

The following is a summary of the percentage New Hampshire students scoring at or above Proficient on the NAEP assessments.

*Subgroup data does not meet the minimum size for reporting.

It should be noted that the assessments are not state specific, and the questions may not be fully aligned with New Hampshire’s grade level academic standards. Exact comparisons between the NAEP results and the results of the New Hampshire Statewide Assessments are not made. However, a trend analysis for the state on both assessments show a decline in the overall scale scores in reading and mathematics in grades 4 and 8. This is consistent across the country and is being examined at both the state and national level.

"The scores for New Hampshire students have not shown any statistically significant changes since 2003 and we continue to see a gap in achievement across our reportable subgroups. These are both areas of concern that we will be examining in more detail," said Julie Couch, the Administrator for the Bureau of Instructional Support and Student Assessment.

For complete 2017 NAEP results please view the Nation's Report Card