A new report finds New Hampshire ranks right in the middle when it comes to academic growth in math and reading compared to other states.
The average student in the state is performing slightly better in math and slightly worse in reading in 2025 compared to 2022, but is still performing below pre-pandemic levels for both subjects.
That’s according to the latest Education Scorecard released by researchers from Harvard University, Stanford University and Dartmouth College, which tracked academic growth nationwide from 2022 to 2025.
Doug Staiger is one of the researchers on this report. He’s a professor of economics at Dartmouth College, where he studies the economics of education and healthcare. He spoke with NHPR’s All Things Considered host Julia Barnett about what the report means for New Hampshire students.
Transcript
So this study covers a lot nationally and here in New Hampshire. What can and can't this data tell us?
What it really can tell us is about what's been happening over the last decade or two in both New Hampshire and individual districts, [and] in New Hampshire and the nation. The big points it's trying to make — and it's focused, by the way, on achievement, on test scores —those don't capture everything, but they're an important part of what schools do.
The average student was two grade levels ahead of where they were in the early 1990s by around 2013, two grade levels in math, one grade level ahead of growth in reading. And then things turned in 2013. And both math and reading are down about a grade level since 2013. And that's true nationally, and it's true in New Hampshire, which we think is cause for concern.
And these academic results are varied across districts right?
On average, the high-poverty districts, districts with more than, say, 70% of their students in poverty, they've actually made good gains since 2022. They took a big fall in the pandemic. The wealthy districts, the ones with less than, say, 30% of the students in poverty, have also made good gains. It's those middle-income districts that kind of have not made good gains since 2022.
We think a lot of that has to do with the higher poverty districts, they got a lot of pandemic relief aid, [the] average for the highest poverty districts [was] almost $8,000 per student. And that money helped a lot. The wealthier districts, they probably had their own resources and that helped them recover. And the middle income [districts] have kind of been left behind. They didn't have the resources from either the federal government or their own resources to do the work. So it's been very variable.
And to zero in on our home state, what does this report tell us about how New Hampshire students are performing academically compared to students in other states?
So New Hampshire's really kind of middle of the pack, especially in terms of the change over time, their growth. They had a very similar decline during the pandemic and over the time period before. And since the pandemic occurred or since 2022, they've had kind of a similar, middle of the pack, recovery. They've recovered some in math and actually continued to decline in reading.
So you mentioned earlier that there's a range of academic performance results among districts in the state. When it comes to New Hampshire, what are higher performing districts doing that seems to be leading to success?
So I would say we don't know for sure exactly what is causing it. But in our report, we identified a little over 100 districts nationwide that we call ‘Districts on the Rise,’ the districts that are doing something that have really made them, since 2022, since the pandemic, we've seen these districts test scores rise more strongly than other districts. In New Hampshire, Dover is one of the districts. And it's not back to where it was before the pandemic yet on math, it is in reading, but it's really seeing growth in the last few years that similar districts have not.
And when you look at, not just Dover, but at all the districts, there are kind of some common themes that show up. People are very intentional about achievement. They really see achievement as something that slipped and they are working hard to improve it. They're using data and feedback to help understand both what's happening in their district and to help people realize this is or isn't working. They are bringing in evidence-based curriculums and interventions, things like tutoring and summer school, which have been shown to have large impacts on student achievement. So all of that I think of as kind of using the resources you have wisely.
New Hampshire school funding is largely based around local property taxes. Is there something about the way we fund schools here that might impact success, or how their scores show up on the education scorecard?
You know, there may be some. A lot of what you see in recent recovery was driven by the federal funding, which was unusually high for a few years, right? And is now gone. There's a fair amount of evidence that spending is related to your student growth and student scores, you know? But it's not the sole determinant. Many states that have local funding and not a big state role have been able to have successful schools.
Well Doug, any other factors in academic achievement that you're keeping an eye on as you move forward?
The other thing that really jumped out at us was on the reading side. Across the country, it's continued to decline. But some states have shown real growth since 2022 in their reading. And all the states that have implemented the science of reading phonics, and gotten away from — there was a kind of a method that was being used that sometimes gets called whole language — not all the states that have science of reading have seen big growth. But all the states that had big growth in reading have science of reading.
Do you know where New Hampshire stands on that?
New Hampshire has partially implemented the science of reading, but they are not at the level where you see growth in reading.
And now that this report is out in the world, how do you hope New Hampshire uses or looks at this data?
I really encourage every district to look up — you can go and look up your own district. It shows how your scores have been doing relative to comparable districts within the state. It tells you who we thought were comparable districts, so you can go look at them. I've actually spoken and emailed with New Hampshire districts already who've had questions about their reports.
I hope the state does two things to help districts recover or improve. One is what resources we have, trying to target that on these districts that you can see in New Hampshire that have really been slipping [or] not recovering and trying to see what the state can do to help them. But the other is just trying to facilitate districts talking to each other and learning from some of the success stories in New Hampshire.
