New Hampshire charter schools rank fourth in first-ever ranking of student performance

CONCORD, NH — In the first-ever ranking of state performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) by charter-school students, New Hampshire ranked fourth out of 35 states. 

The strongest academic performance from charter-school students is in Alaska, followed by Colorado, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma and New Jersey. The lowest-ranked charter performance is in Hawaii. 

“With 32 public charter schools in the state, each of them are serving a different mission for more than 5,500 students statewide. By promoting engaging and innovative instruction for students’ unique needs, public charter schools provide another option for learning, which helps to expand and enhance New Hampshire’s educational opportunities,” said Frank Edelblut, education commissioner. 

The analysis from Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Education Policy and Governance ranks states by their average level of charter performance on the NAEP testing for fourth-graders and eighth-graders in math and reading. Although New Hampshire has several public charter schools that serve as an alternative for students at risk of dropping out of traditional high school, this report does not include testing from charter high school students.

“We hope these rankings will spur charter school improvement in much the same way that NAEP results have stimulated efforts to improve student achievement more generally,” wrote Paul E. Peterson and M. Danish Shakeel, authors of the report that was released on November 14. “… Although previous rankings document the variety of environments in which charter schools operate, they do not report student achievement measured by a national test common to public schools across the country.”