Henry Wilson Memorial School, Farmington NH

Original Research by School Decision on Henry Wilson Memorial School

Henry Wilson Memorial School sits on School Street in Farmington, a semi-rural New Hampshire town where Route 11 serves as an industrial corridor and a compact downtown clusters along Main Street near the junction of state routes. The town grew steadily over recent decades, with publicly reported population figures showing continued gains through the most recent estimates. Civic life revolves around municipal parks, ball fields, a public golf course, conservation land along the Mad River, Blue Job State Forest, and Baxter Lake. Public transit runs through COAST, though the low-density settlement means most families rely on cars. Farmington operates as a single district through SAU 61, covering kindergarten through high school, so Henry Wilson Memorial fits into a continuous local pathway rather than a choice-driven or inter-district arrangement.

The school serves grades four through eight, a span that bridges upper elementary and middle school. Enrollment is modest, with roughly equal cohort sizes across the five grade levels. The student body is predominantly white, with a small number of students identifying as two or more races and very few identifying as Black or Hispanic. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. Data on special education identification and English-learner status was not reported, so those portraits remain gaps a parent may want to ask the school about directly.

On New Hampshire's state assessments, results were mixed across subjects and grades. In English language arts, the school performed with reasonable consistency. Roughly half of tested students reached proficiency or above in most grades, with fifth grade standing out as the strongest and fourth and seventh grades landing somewhat lower. These are middling results that suggest solid grade-level reading instruction without clear peaks or valleys that would signal a systemic issue. Math tells a more uneven story. Fourth and sixth grades showed moderate proficiency, but fifth grade dipped, and seventh grade fell to a low level, with eighth grade recovering somewhat. The seventh-grade math result is a soft spot a parent may want to look into further with the school, particularly whether staffing, curriculum sequencing, or cohort factors played a role. Science was tested only in fifth and eighth grades, and the contrast was sharp: fifth-grade science proficiency was low, while eighth-grade science was the school's strongest result by a wide margin. Whether that reflects a maturing curriculum, a strong upper-grade science teacher, or cohort differences is something the school could clarify.

The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate, no AP or dual-credit data, and no college-readiness metric to report. Those gaps reflect the grade band, not a missing obligation. Program offerings, staffing details, discipline data, and attendance figures were not provided, which limits the picture of daily school life and what electives or supports exist beyond core academics.

Housing in Farmington sits below the New Hampshire state benchmark but above the national figure, with the typical home value reflecting a market that has appreciated at a brisk pace recently. The price-to-income ratio suggests moderate stretch relative to national norms, and current mortgage rates make monthly costs a real consideration for families moving in. The school district's recently approved operating budget grew meaningfully year over year, and voters also funded a facilities study that could shape future building decisions. Property taxes in town have risen, with the school district a standard component of the overall rate in New Hampshire's funding structure.

What a family gets here is a small, locally rooted school in a quiet town with outdoor recreation nearby and a working industrial base along its main corridor. Academic performance is steady in literacy, uneven in math, and strong in upper-grade science. The peer environment is homogeneous and the community is compact. Families drawn to a smaller setting with continuity from elementary through middle school may find this a fit, while those wanting richer program data or stronger middle-grade math outcomes should press the district for more detail.

See more original research from School Decision →

Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 445%

School 45% · District 45%

▼ 5 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 31% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 7 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 643%

School 43% · District 43%

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

Grade 720%

School 20% · District 20%

▼ 18 pts below state median

Grade 840%

School 40% · District 40%

▲ 4 pts above state median

English language arts

Grade 447%

School 47% · District 47%

▼ 6 pts below state median · even with county median

Grade 557%

School 57% · District 55% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▼ 1 pts below state median · ▲ 5 pts above county median

Grade 652%

School 52% · District 52%

even with state median · ▲ 4 pts above county median

Grade 744%

School 44% · District 44%

▼ 12 pts below state median

Grade 851%

School 51% · District 51%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Science

Grade 530%

School 30% · District 29% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 5 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

Grade 864%

School 64% · District 64%

▲ 28 pts above state median

This schoolFarmington 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 4Lower-income32%Higher-income62%30 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income45%Higher-income65%20 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income38%Higher-income61%23 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income32%Higher-income54%22 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income57%Higher-income47%10 pp gap

Mathematics

Grade 4Lower-income40%Higher-income50%10 pp gap

Grade 5Lower-income25%Higher-income37%12 pp gap

Grade 6Lower-income19%Higher-income57%38 pp gap

Grade 7Lower-income9%Higher-income29%20 pp gap

Grade 8Lower-income36%Higher-income42%6 pp gap