Independent New Hampshire Journalism · Northfield, NHOn the federal test known as the Nation’s Report Card, the share of the state’s public-school eighth graders scoring below the NAEP Basic level nearly doubled over the same span. The slide was measurable by 2019, it showed up in all four reading and math tests, and New Hampshire still scored above the national public-school average on every one of them in 2024.
Audio edition (10:45): a synthetic voice reads the article. The charts, tables and fact check are on this page.
In 2013, 46.8 percent of New Hampshire’s public-school eighth graders scored at or above the NAEP Proficient level in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal test known as the Nation’s Report Card. In 2024, 32.0 percent did. Over the same span, the share scoring below the NAEP Basic level, the test’s lowest named benchmark, rose from 15.6 percent to 30.7 percent.
Of the four tests New Hampshire gives on a two-year cycle, reading and math in grades 4 and 8, eighth-grade math had the largest drop in average score and the largest rise in the below-Basic share. The pattern runs through all four. In each one, the 2024 average score was lower than in 2013, the share at or above NAEP Proficient was smaller, and the share below NAEP Basic was larger. The federal statistics service that runs the test flags every one of those 12 differences as statistically significant, meaning it is unlikely to be an accident of which students happened to be sampled.
Four Tests, Three Years: New Hampshire Public Schools on NAEP
Percent of students at or above NAEP Proficient, and percent below NAEP Basic. Every 2013-to-2024 change shown here is statistically significant in the NAEP Data Service’s tests.
| Test | Proficient or above, 2013 | 2019 | 2024 | Below Basic, 2013 | 2019 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 8 math | 46.8% | 38.5% | 32.0% | 15.6% | 23.5% | 30.7% |
| Grade 4 math | 58.7% | 45.8% | 42.6% | 7.4% | 14.3% | 18.9% |
| Grade 8 reading | 43.7% | 37.7% | 33.8% | 16.1% | 22.0% | 26.4% |
| Grade 4 reading | 44.6% | 38.2% | 36.2% | 19.7% | 29.1% | 33.3% |
Granite State Report · Source: National Center for Education Statistics, NAEP Data Service, New Hampshire public schools, all students, accommodations permitted. Figures are carried to one decimal; the state’s NAEP snapshot reports round them to whole numbers.
What the test is, and what “Proficient” means
NAEP tests samples of students, not every child, and it reports results for states and groups of students. It gives no score to any student or school. Congress authorized a voluntary trial of state-by-state results in 1988, and the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act required every state that takes federal Title I money to take part in reading and math at grades 4 and 8 every two years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The figures in this article cover New Hampshire’s public schools.
The test sorts results by scale scores and by three achievement levels set by the National Assessment Governing Board: NAEP Basic, NAEP Proficient and NAEP Advanced. NCES describes NAEP Proficient as “competency over challenging material,” and NAEP Basic as “partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills” needed to perform at the Proficient level. It adds a caution that matters for any comparison with a state’s own test: “NAEP Proficient does not signify meeting grade level expectations, which are set through state assessments.” The state snapshot reports carry another: “NAEP achievement levels are to be used on a trial basis and should be interpreted and used with caution.”
So a student below NAEP Proficient is not necessarily behind grade level by New Hampshire’s own standards. The value of the test is that every state gives the same assessment, and, in NCES’s words, states “can monitor their own progress over time” and compare their students “with students in other states and with the nation.”
The slide was under way before 2022
New Hampshire’s highest math Proficient shares came in the 2013 round. That year 58.7 percent of fourth graders and 46.8 percent of eighth graders reached NAEP Proficient. Reading’s highest Proficient shares came a little later: 45.9 percent of fourth graders in 2015 and 45.1 percent of eighth graders in 2017. These are the highest point estimates; NAEP’s tests do not separate eighth-grade math’s 2013 share from 2015’s 46.3 percent, or the 2015 fourth-grade reading figure from 2013’s.
By the 2019 round, the last before the COVID-19 pandemic, every one of the 12 measures (the average score, the Proficient share and the below-Basic share on each of the four tests) had already moved the wrong way from 2013. NAEP’s significance tests flag all 12 of those 2013-to-2019 changes. In eighth-grade math, the Proficient share fell from 46.8 percent to 38.5 percent in those six years, and the below-Basic share rose from 15.6 percent to 23.5 percent. NCES’s own 2022 math report describes 2019 as the “pre-pandemic” point of comparison.
The 2022 round, the first after the pandemic began, brought further significant drops in fourth-grade math, eighth-grade math and eighth-grade reading; fourth-grade reading’s changes from 2019 to 2022 were not statistically significant. From 2019 to 2024, the eighth-grade math Proficient share fell again, from 38.5 percent to 32.0 percent, and NAEP flags that change. Between 2022 and 2024, none of New Hampshire’s 12 measures changed by a statistically significant amount. The snapshot reports say the same thing in plain words for each test: the 2024 results were “not significantly different” from 2022.
Grade 8 Math: Share at or Above NAEP Proficient
New Hampshire public schools, every state NAEP round from 2003 through 2024. The 2013 figure, the highest point estimate, is shown in red; NAEP’s tests do not separate it from 2015. Bars are drawn to scale against 60 percent.
Granite State Report · Source: National Center for Education Statistics, NAEP Data Service, grade 8 mathematics, New Hampshire and national public schools, accommodations permitted.
Against 2003: mixed at the top, lower at the bottom
Measured against 2003, the first year all four New Hampshire results are on the federal record used here, the picture is mixed. In fourth-grade math, 42.6 percent reached Proficient in 2003 and 42.6 percent did in 2024. In eighth-grade math, the share was 34.7 percent in 2003 and 32.0 percent in 2024, a difference NAEP does not count as significant. Fourth-grade reading Proficient rates show no significant difference from 2003 either. Eighth-grade reading did not hold: 40.4 percent reached Proficient in 2003 and 33.8 percent in 2024, a drop NAEP flags as significant. Average scores were significantly lower than in 2003 on three of the four tests; fourth-grade math was the exception.
The bottom of the distribution tells a different story. The share of students below NAEP Basic was larger in 2024 than in 2003 on all four tests, and NAEP flags each of those differences. In fourth-grade math it went from 12.8 percent to 18.9 percent; in eighth-grade math, from 21.4 percent to 30.7 percent. In fourth-grade reading, one student in three, 33.3 percent, scored below NAEP Basic in 2024.
Still above the national average
New Hampshire’s fall did not take it below the country. In 2024, its average score was higher than the national public-school average on all four tests, its share at or above NAEP Proficient was larger, and its share below NAEP Basic was smaller. NAEP flags all 12 of those comparisons as significant.
2024: New Hampshire Against the Nation
New Hampshire public schools / national public schools.
| Test | Average score | Proficient or above | Below Basic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade 8 math | 279.7 / 272.2 | 32.0% / 26.9% | 30.7% / 41.0% |
| Grade 4 math | 241.6 / 237.3 | 42.6% / 39.4% | 18.9% / 24.4% |
| Grade 8 reading | 263.9 / 256.7 | 33.8% / 28.7% | 26.4% / 34.2% |
| Grade 4 reading | 221.5 / 214.3 | 36.2% / 30.5% | 33.3% / 40.7% |
Granite State Report · Source: National Center for Education Statistics, NAEP Data Service and 2024 New Hampshire state snapshot reports. Scores are on NAEP’s 0-to-500 scales.
The margin is smaller than it was. In 2013, New Hampshire’s fourth-grade math Proficient share was 58.7 percent against a national public-school share of 41.3 percent, a gap of 17.4 points. In 2024 it was 42.6 percent against 39.4 percent, a gap of 3.2 points. In eighth-grade math the gap went from 12.3 points to 5.1. Granite State Report did not run a significance test on the change in those gaps.
A narrated summary of this article (1:17), read by a synthetic voice. Photographs: John Phelan, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Charts: Granite State Report from NAEP figures. Because it adapts CC BY-SA 4.0 photographs, this video is offered under CC BY-SA 4.0.
What the numbers do not say
NAEP measures what students know at one point in time. It does not identify causes, and nothing in the results reported here explains why New Hampshire’s scores fell after 2013. Because the samples are drawn fresh each round, the 2024 eighth graders are not the same students as the 2013 eighth graders. The results also cannot be broken down to a town, a school district or a school.
The next set of results will need its own reading. The 2026 reading and math tests were scheduled for January 26 to March 20, 2026, and NCES has said they are the first given under new frameworks, the documents that set what the test asks. NCES planned a study to confirm that score changes reflect what students know rather than the new framework or the testing device, and in a January 21, 2026, post it said the 2026 reading and math results were scheduled for release in early 2027.
Granite State Report has also covered the fall in New Hampshire’s public-school enrollment from 2000 to 2023 and what New Hampshire teachers are paid.
— Granite State Report
Your Turn
Tell us: if you teach in a New Hampshire public school, or have a child in one, what did you see in your school between 2013 and 2019, before the pandemic? Write to granitestatereport@gmail.com. No person or agency named in this article was asked to comment for it. Any of them may write to the same address; a response will be added here with its date.
Fact check
| # | Claim | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | In 2013, 46.8 percent of New Hampshire public-school eighth graders scored at or above NAEP Proficient in math; in 2024, 32.0 percent. Below NAEP Basic rose from 15.6 to 30.7 percent. | VERIFIED | NCES NAEP Data Service, grade 8 mathematics, New Hampshire public schools; 2024 grade 8 math snapshot report (32 percent, rounded). |
| 2 | On all four tests, the 2024 average was lower, the Proficient share smaller and the below-Basic share larger than in 2013, and all 12 differences are statistically significant; grade 8 math had the largest drop in average (15.9 points) and the largest rise in below Basic (15.1 points). | VERIFIED | NAEP Data Service values and across-year significance tests, 2013 vs. 2024. |
| 3 | Every figure in the four-test table (2013, 2019 and 2024 Proficient and below-Basic shares). | VERIFIED | NAEP Data Service, New Hampshire public schools, accommodations permitted; rounded by Granite State Report to one decimal from unrounded values. |
| 4 | NAEP tests samples and gives no score to any student or school; Congress authorized a voluntary trial of state results in 1988; the 2001 ESEA reauthorization requires Title I states to take reading and math at grades 4 and 8 every two years. | VERIFIED | NCES, About State NAEP. |
| 5 | Achievement levels are set by the National Assessment Governing Board; the quoted definitions of NAEP Proficient and NAEP Basic; the quoted note that NAEP Proficient does not signify meeting grade-level expectations. | VERIFIED | NCES, NAEP Achievement Levels page. |
| 6 | The quoted NCES phrases that states “can monitor their own progress over time” and compare their students “with students in other states and with the nation.” | VERIFIED | NCES, About State NAEP. |
| 7 | The quoted caution that achievement levels are to be used on a trial basis. | VERIFIED | 2024 New Hampshire grade 8 math state snapshot report, note. |
| 8 | Highest point estimates: math Proficient in 2013 (58.7 percent grade 4, 46.8 percent grade 8); reading 45.9 percent (grade 4, 2015) and 45.1 percent (grade 8, 2017); grade 8 math 2013 not significantly different from 2015 (46.3 percent); grade 4 reading 2015 not significantly different from 2013. | VERIFIED | NAEP Data Service values, all rounds 2003–2024, and significance tests 2013 vs. 2015. |
| 9 | All 12 measures (average, Proficient share and below-Basic share on four tests) moved the wrong way from 2013 to 2019, all 12 significant; grade 8 math Proficient 46.8 to 38.5 percent and below Basic 15.6 to 23.5 percent. | VERIFIED | NAEP Data Service significance tests, 2013 vs. 2019. |
| 10 | NCES’s 2022 math report compares results to “pre-pandemic” performance in 2019. | VERIFIED | NCES, 2022 NAEP Mathematics Highlights. |
| 11 | 2019 to 2022 drops were significant in grade 4 math, grade 8 math and grade 8 reading and not in grade 4 reading; grade 8 math Proficient 38.5 percent (2019) to 32.0 percent (2024), significant; none of the 12 measures changed significantly 2022 to 2024; snapshot wording “not significantly different.” | VERIFIED | NAEP Data Service significance tests (2019 vs. 2022; 2019 and 2022 vs. 2024); 2024 New Hampshire state snapshot reports. |
| 12 | 2003 vs. 2024: grade 4 math Proficient 42.6 and 42.6 percent; grade 8 math 34.7 and 32.0 percent, not significant; grade 4 reading Proficient not significant; grade 8 reading Proficient 40.4 to 33.8 percent, significant; averages significantly lower on three tests, grade 4 math not. | VERIFIED | NAEP Data Service significance tests, 2003 vs. 2024; 2024 state snapshot reports. |
| 13 | Below Basic was larger in 2024 than in 2003 on all four tests, each significant; grade 4 math 12.8 to 18.9 percent; grade 8 math 21.4 to 30.7 percent; grade 4 reading 33.3 percent in 2024. | VERIFIED | NAEP Data Service significance tests, 2003 vs. 2024. |
| 14 | In 2024 New Hampshire’s average, Proficient share and below-Basic share were better than the national public-school figures on all four tests, all 12 significant; the national comparison table. | VERIFIED | NAEP Data Service across-jurisdiction significance tests (sigacrossjuris), 2024; 2024 snapshot reports. |
| 15 | Grade 4 math Proficient gap with the nation: 17.4 points in 2013 and 3.2 in 2024; grade 8 math: 12.3 and 5.1. | VERIFIED | NAEP Data Service across-jurisdiction tests (gaps computed from unrounded values). |
| 16 | The 2026 reading and math tests were scheduled for Jan. 26 to March 20, 2026, are the first under new frameworks, and the results were scheduled for early 2027 after a device-and-framework study. | VERIFIED | NCES/IES, “What’s on the Horizon for the 2026 Nation’s Report Card,” Jan. 21, 2026. |
| 17 | Both photographs are by John Phelan and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; West Running Brook Middle School, Derry, July 13, 2014; Sunapee Middle High School, June 8, 2019. | VERIFIED | Wikimedia Commons file pages. |
District test reports, curriculum decisions and the dates on them are what build the record. Confidentiality respected where possible. granitestatereport@gmail.com · (603) 931-9264.
Editor’s note. Scores, achievement-level percentages and significance results are drawn from the National Center for Education Statistics’ NAEP Data Service for New Hampshire and national public schools, and from the four 2024 New Hampshire NAEP state snapshot reports. Definitions and program history are drawn from NCES’s NAEP pages. Gaps between figures are Granite State Report arithmetic from the unrounded NCES values.
Corrections: Granite State Report corrects verified errors promptly and appends a dated note identifying what changed and when. The corrections policy and the corrections register are public, and correction notes are never removed.
