Historical public education information in New Hampshire, 2011-2015

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Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

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Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

This page contains archived information on New Hampshire's public education system, primarily from 2011-2012, but also from other years due to the availability of data at the time it was written. For more recent information, view New Hampshire's public education page.

The New Hampshire public school system (prekindergarten through grade 12) operates within districts governed by locally elected school boards and superintendents. In 2012 New Hampshire had 191,900 students enrolled in a total of 477 schools in 281 school districts. While the national ratio of teachers to students was 1:16, in New Hampshire there were 15,049 teachers in the public schools, or roughly one teacher for every 13 students. There was roughly one administrator for every 350 students, compared to the national average of one administrator for every 295 students. On average New Hampshire spent $13,224 per pupil in 2011, which ranked it 12th highest in the nation. The state's graduation rate was 86 percent in 2012. This was the Regulatory Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate reported to the United States Department of Education for all students in 2011-2012.

State agencies

See also: New Hampshire Department of Education

The New Hampshire Department of Education is divided into four divisions: the Division of Career Technology and Adult Learning, the Division of Higher Education, the Division of Educational Improvement and the Division of Program Support. Through these divisions, the Department of Education offers a number of programs and services to students, families, teachers and community members.

The New Hampshire Commissioner of Education was Virginia M. Barry as of June 2015.

The mission statement of the New Hampshire Department of Education reads:

“

To provide educational leadership and services which promote equal educational opportunities and quality practices and programs that enable New Hampshire residents to become fully productive members of society.

”

The New Hampshire State Board of Education has seven members who are appointed by the governor and executive council. Five members are chosen from each of the five executive councilor districts, and two are selected from the state at large.

Regional comparison

See also: General comparison table for education statistics in the 50 states and Education spending per pupil in all 50 states

The following chart shows how New Hampshire compared to three neighboring states with respect to number of students, schools, the number of teachers per pupil and the number of administrators per pupil during the 2011-2012 school year. Further comparisons between these states with respect to performance and financial information are given in other sections of this page.

Regional comparison, 2011-2012
State	Schools	Districts	Students	Teachers	Teacher/pupil ratio	Administrator/pupil ratio	Per pupil spending
New Hampshire	477	281	191,900	15,049	1:12.8	1:349.6	$13,224
Maine	621	260	188,969	14,888	1:12.7	1:114.2	$11,438
Massachusetts	1,835	401	953,369	69,342	1:13.7	1:210.1	$13,941
Vermont	320	369	89,908	8,364	1:10.7	1:188.3	$15,925
United States	98,328	17,992	49,521,669	3,103,263	1:16	1:295.2	$10,994
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "State Nonfiscal Public Elementary/Secondary Education Survey", 2011-12 v.1a. National Center for Education Statistics, Table 2. Number of operating public schools and districts, state enrollment, teacher and pupil/teacher ratio by state: School year 2011–12 U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Demographics

See also: Demographic information for all students in all 50 states

The following table displays the ethnic distribution of students in New Hampshire as reported in the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data for 2011-2012.

Demographic information for New Hampshire's K-12 public school system
Ethnicity	Students	State percentage	United States percentage**
American Indian	612	0.32%	1.10%
Asian	5,443	2.84%	4.68%
African American	3,696	1.93%	15.68%
Hawaiian Nat./Pacific Isl.	115	0.06%	0.42%
Hispanic	7,429	3.87%	24.37%
White	171,011	89.11%	51.21%
Two or More	3,594	1.87%	2.54%
**Note: This is the percentage of all students in the United States that are reported to be of this ethnicity.

Enrollments by region type

See also: Student distribution by region type in the United States

Students in New Hampshire were most likely to attend rural or suburban schools during the 2011-2012 school year. This was similar to students in neighboring states. In Vermont and Maine, students were most likely to attend rural schools, and in Massachusetts, students were most likely to attend suburban schools.

Student distribution by region type, 2011 - 2012 (as percents)
State	City schools	Suburban schools	Town schools	Rural schools
New Hampshire	14.4%	31.8%	16.3%	37.5%
Maine	12.6%	11.2%	17.6%	58.6%
Massachusetts	20.8%	66.1%	2.2%	11.0%
Vermont	7.2%	11.2%	24.8%	56.9%
U.S. average	28.9%	34.0%	11.6%	25.4%
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD)

Academic performance

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). Compared to three neighboring states (Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont), New Hampshire had a higher or equal percentage of students score at or above proficient in math in fourth and eighth grades 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
New Hampshire	59%	47%	45%	44%
Maine	47%	40%	37%	38%
Massachusetts	58%	55%	47%	48%
Vermont	52%	47%	42%	45%
U.S. average	41%	34%	34%	34%
Source: United States Department of Education, ED Data Express, "State Tables," accessed May 13, 2014

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 and average composite ACT and SAT scores for New Hampshire 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
New Hampshire	86%	First	23.8	19%	1567	70%
Maine	85%	Second	23.4	9%	1380	95%
Massachusetts	85%	Second	24.1	23%	1553	83%
Vermont	88%	First	23.0	28%	1540	61%
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 2010–2011 and school year 2011–2012. The event dropout rate for New Hampshire was lower than the national average at 1.3 percent in the 2010-2011 school year, and 1.3 percent in the 2011-2012 school year.

Educational choice options

See also: School choice in New Hampshire

As of June 2015, school choice options in New Hampshire included: charter schools, education tax credits, homeschooling, online learning, private schools and voluntary public school open enrollment policies.

Education funding and expenditures

See also: New Hampshire state budget and finances

Breakdown of expenditures by function in fiscal year 2012
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), New Hampshire spent approximately 23.5 percent of its fiscal year 2012 budget on elementary and secondary education. This was up 1.3 percentage points, a 5.9 percent increase in the share of the budget from fiscal year 2008, when the state spent 22.2 percent of its budget on elementary and secondary education. Over half of New Hampshire's education revenue came from local funding during fiscal year 2011. State funding accounts for about 37 percent, and federal funding accounts for about 6.5 percent.

Comparison of financial figures for school systems
State	Percent of budget (2012)	Per pupil spending (2011)	Revenue sources (2011)
			Percent federal funds	Percent state funds	Percent local funds
New Hampshire	23.5%	$13,224	6.49%	37.29%	56.21%
Maine	13.1%	$11,438	11.13%	40.22%	48.65%
Massachusetts	10.7%	$13,941	7.85%	37.91%	54.24%
Vermont	31.1%	$15,925	7.07%	88.26%	4.68%
Sources: NASBO, "State Expenditure Report," Table 8: Elementary and Secondary Education Expenditures As a Percent of Total Expenditures U.S. Census Bureau, "Public Education Finances: 2011,Governments Division Reports," issued May 2013

Revenue breakdowns

See also: Public school system revenues in the U.S.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system revenues in New Hampshire totaled approximately $2.8 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including revenue sources, for New Hampshire and surrounding states.

Revenues by source, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	Federal revenue	State revenue	Local revenue	Total revenue
New Hampshire	$184,768	$1,061,011	$1,599,416	$2,845,195
Maine	$289,346	$1,045,786	$1,265,180	$2,600,312
Massachusetts	$1,197,383	$5,783,240	$8,275,257	$15,255,880
Vermont	$107,275	$1,339,844	$70,990	$1,518,109
U.S. total	$74,943,767	$267,762,416	$264,550,594	$607,256,777
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Expenditure breakdowns

See also: Public school system expenditures in the United States

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public school system expenditures in New Hampshire totaled approximately $2.8 billion in fiscal year 2011. The table below presents further detail, including expenditure types, for New Hampshire and surrounding states.

Expenditures by type, fiscal year 2011 (amounts in thousands)
	General expenditures**	Capital outlay	Other***	Total expenditures
New Hampshire	$2,502,899	$206,241	$129,038	$2,838,178
Maine	$2,369,256	$164,949	$142,686	$2,676,891
Massachusetts	$12,894,969	$817,228	$767,052	$14,479,249
Vermont	$1,404,710	$63,812	$78,497	$1,547,019
U.S. total	$520,577,893	$52,984,139	$29,581,293	$603,143,325
**Funds spent operating local public schools and local education agencies, including such expenses as salaries for school personnel, student transportation, school books and materials, and energy costs, but excluding capital outlay, interest on school debt, payments to private schools, and payments to public charter schools. ***Includes payments to state and local governments, payments to private schools, interest on school system indebtedness, and nonelementary-secondary expenditures, such as adult education and community services expenditures. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Personnel salaries

See also: Public school teacher salaries in the United States

Note: Salaries given are averages for the state. Salaries may vary between a state's urban, suburban, and rural districts and should be adjusted for cost of living. For example, a MacIver Institute study of average teacher salaries in 60 metropolitan areas found that salaries in New York City were the third-highest in absolute figures but 59th-highest when adjusted for the cost of living.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average national salary for classroom teachers in public elementary and secondary schools declined by 1.3 percent from the 1999-2000 school year to the 2012-2013 school year. During the same period in New Hampshire, the average salary increased by 7.8 percent.

Estimated average salaries for teachers (in constant dollars**)
	1999-2000	2009-2010	2011-2012	2012-2013	Percent difference
New Hampshire	$51,567	$54,912	$55,079	$55,599	7.8%
Maine	$48,597	$49,216	$48,126	$48,119	-1%
Massachusetts	$63,656	$73,945	$72,915	$73,129	14.9%
Vermont	$51,600	$52,394	$52,160	$52,526	1.8%
U.S. average	$57,133	$58,925	$56,340	$56,383	-1.3%
**"Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis. The CPI does not account for differences in inflation rates from state to state."

Organizations

Unions

In 2012, the Fordham Institute and Education Reform Now assessed the power and influence of state teacher unions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their rankings were based on 37 different variables in five broad areas, including: resources and membership, involvement in politics, scope of bargaining, state policies and perceived influence. New Hampshire ranked 30th overall, or average, which was in the middle tier of five.

The main unions related to the New Hampshire school system are the NEA New Hampshire (NEA-NH), an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), and New Hampshire Federation of Teachers (AFT-NH), an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers.

List of local New Hampshire school unions:

• NEA New Hampshire
• New Hampshire Federation of Teachers
• Manchester Education Association
• AFT Nashua
• AFT Bow
• Rochester Federation Of Teachers
• Salem Education Association
• AFT Hudson
• Keene Educational Association
• AFT Plaistow
• Concord Education Association

Government sector lobbying

See also: New Hampshire government sector lobbying

The main education government sector lobbying organization is the New Hampshire School Boards Association.

Studies and reports

State Budget Solutions education study

See also: State spending on education v. academic performance (2012)

State Budget Solutions examined national trends in education from 2009 to 2011, including state-by-state analysis of education spending, graduation rates and average ACT scores. The study showed that the states that spent the most did not have the highest average ACT test scores, nor did they have the highest average graduation rates. A summary of the study is available here. The full report can be accessed here.

See also

• Public education in New Hampshire
• New Hampshire
• Education Policy in the U.S.