The top reported proficiency rate is 41% in English language arts. The lowest is 18% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on The Founders Academy Charter School (e)
The Founders Academy Charter School sits on Perimeter Road in Manchester, New Hampshire, serving students in grades five through eight. As a public charter school, it operates as its own small district under state authorization, which means families apply rather than automatically enrolling through neighborhood assignment. The school draws from Manchester, the largest city in New Hampshire, a place shaped by its industrial past along the Merrimack River and now home to a mix of residential neighborhoods, commercial corridors, and newer technology employers. Manchester sits roughly an hour's drive north of Boston, and its housing market reflects that regional position. Typical home values in the school's zip code run below the statewide benchmark but above the national median, while rents sit in a moderate range for southern New Hampshire. A family considering this area would find a city with working-class roots, a revitalized millyard district, and cultural amenities that include theater, sports, and concert venues.
The school itself is small for its grade band, with enrollment spread across four grades. The student body is predominantly white, with a Hispanic population making up the next largest group, followed by smaller Asian and Black populations, and a handful of students identifying as two or more races. Roughly a fifth of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a relatively modest share. The school did not report figures for students with individualized education programs or English learners, so those populations are unknown from the available data. A parent with questions about special education services or language support would want to ask the school directly, since the records here do not speak to either area.
On New Hampshire's state assessments, the most recent results paint a mixed and in some areas sobering picture. In English language arts, the younger grades hold their own, with a majority of fifth graders reaching proficiency and a substantial portion of sixth and seventh graders doing the same. By eighth grade, though, ELA proficiency drops off considerably. In mathematics, the results are consistently low across every grade, with only a small fraction of students demonstrating proficiency at any level. Science results, available for fifth and eighth grades, fall in between, with roughly a quarter to a third of tested students meeting the proficiency bar. Participation rates on these assessments were high across the board, which means the results reflect nearly the full student body rather than a skewed subset.
No multi-year trend data was available, so it is not possible to say from these records whether performance is improving, declining, or holding steady. This is a gap a parent may want to look into further with the school, especially given the current proficiency levels. The state did not flag any changes to the assessment itself that would complicate comparisons, but the absence of prior-year results in the data means there is simply no trend to read.
The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes or initiatives reported publicly for the recent period, so there is little here about strategic priorities, program additions, or leadership shifts. Program offerings, course access, staffing details, discipline data, and attendance information were not available in the provided records, which limits the picture of day-to-day school life. Civil rights data was also absent. For a charter school of this size, those gaps may reflect limited reporting rather than an absence of programming, but a family would need to go to the school's own communications to learn what clubs, electives, or support structures exist beyond the core academic program.
What the data does say clearly is that The Founders Academy offers a small, relatively diverse middle-grade setting in an established New Hampshire city, with ELA outcomes that start reasonably strong in the younger grades but fade by eighth grade, and mathematics outcomes that are low throughout. Families drawn to a charter option in Manchester, particularly those who value a smaller peer environment for the middle school years, would want to weigh those academic results alongside whatever the school can show about its curriculum, teaching approach, and plans for improvement, since the state assessment data alone does not tell the full story of what happens in the building day to day.
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