Ashland Elementary School, Ashland NH

Original Research by School Decision on Ashland Elementary School

Ashland Elementary School is a small kindergarten-through-eighth-grade public school serving the town of Ashland in New Hampshire's Lakes Region. It is the only school in the Ashland School District, and its enrollment is modest, with just a handful of classrooms per grade. The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of students from other racial backgrounds. A moderate share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Data on English learners and special-education enrollment was not available, so those population sizes cannot be characterized here. The school does not carry charter or magnet designations.

The town of Ashland sits on the southern edge of the White Mountain National Forest, bordered by the Pemigewasset River to the west and Little Squam Lake to the east. Once a mill community, it is now described publicly as a residential and resort town with local businesses along a compact Main Street corridor. There is no public transportation. The town's population has been essentially flat for decades, with no major housing developments or growth projects identified. Interstate 93 runs through town at Exit 24, and the school is near the village core. For families, this means a quiet, rural setting with auto-dependent daily life and limited walkability outside the village center. Housing in the area is relatively affordable compared with the broader state benchmark, with a typical home value below the New Hampshire median and near the national figure. The county-level market shows a healthy supply of active listings and steady demand, with homes moving at a moderate pace.

State assessment results from the New Hampshire SAS tell a mixed story, and the small grade-level cohorts mean results can swing sharply from year to year. In math, third and fourth grade proficiency sits in the middle range, while fifth grade drops to a very low level. Sixth grade remains low, seventh grade moves back toward the middle, and eighth grade reaches the school's strongest math result, with a clear majority of tested students proficient. In English language arts, the pattern is similar at the lower grades, with third and fifth grade showing low proficiency, but the upper grades tell a stronger story. Sixth grade reaches a solid majority proficient, seventh grade shows a high proficiency rate, and eighth grade remains strong. Science is tested only in fifth and eighth grade. Fifth-grade science proficiency is very low, while eighth-grade science lands in a middling range.

The contrast between the lower and upper grades is the most consistent pattern in the data. The middle school years at Ashland produce the school's best results, particularly in English language arts. The fifth-grade results across all three subjects are the school's weakest, and a parent may want to look into this further with the school to understand what is driving that dip and whether supports are in place. At the same time, the tested groups are small enough that a few students moving in or out of proficiency can shift the picture considerably, so these results are best read as a snapshot rather than a fixed trajectory.

Because the school ends at eighth grade, there is no graduation rate to report. Publicly available information indicates that Ashland's high school students attend Plymouth Regional High School in neighboring Plymouth, roughly seven miles south, through an Inter-Lakes Cooperative arrangement. No data on staffing ratios, attendance, discipline, course offerings, or program pathways was provided, so those aspects of the school environment cannot be characterized here. The district-level search turned up only routine budget and warrant information, with no lasting parent-relevant changes identified.

For a family considering Ashland Elementary, the appeal is a small, community-rooted school in a quiet lakes-region town where housing costs run below the state median. The academic picture is uneven across grades, with real strength in the upper years and real soft spots in the middle elementary grades. The small school means small class sizes and likely close attention, but it also means assessment results are volatile and parents should look closely at the specific grades their children will be entering.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 333%

School 33% · District 33%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 29 pts below county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 19 pts below county median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 12%

▼ 27 pts below state median · ▼ 33 pts below county median

Grade 622%

School 22% · District 22%

▼ 18 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 731%

School 31% · District 31%

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 12 pts below county median

Grade 857%

School 57% · District 57%

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 10 pts above county median

English language arts

Grade 329%

School 29% · District 29%

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 28 pts below county median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 40%

▼ 13 pts below state median · ▼ 23 pts below county median

Grade 512%

School 12% · District 12%

▼ 46 pts below state median · ▼ 51 pts below county median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 52%

even with state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 777%

School 77% · District 77%

▲ 21 pts above state median · ▲ 14 pts above county median

Grade 862%

School 62% · District 62%

▲ 9 pts above state median · ▲ 3 pts above county median

Science

Grade 54%

School 4% · District 4%

▼ 31 pts below state median · ▼ 39 pts below county median

Grade 838%

School 38% · District 38%

▲ 2 pts above state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

This schoolAshland School District, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.

Proficiency by household income

English language arts

Grade 5Lower-income9%Higher-income14%5 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 5Lower-income18%Higher-income7%11 pp gap