Strafford School, Strafford NH - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Strafford School

Strafford School sits on Roller Coaster Road in the small, rural town of Strafford, New Hampshire, serving students from prekindergarten through eighth grade. It is the town's only public school and the sole school in the Strafford School District. The town itself is spread across forested hills and agricultural land in Strafford County, with two loose village centers, Center Strafford and Bow Lake Village, connected by rural roads. There is no walkable downtown, no public transit, and publicly reported search results turned up no public library. Bow Lake anchors the southern part of town, and the Blue Hills Range, including Parker Mountain, divides the community geographically. Civic life clusters around the town hall in Center Strafford, and the school appears integrated into the community rather than sitting on a separated campus. The town has seen modest but steady population growth over recent decades and remains primarily residential. The tax rate has declined in recent years, with the school portion representing the largest component of the local tax burden.

The school enrolls roughly 400 students across its grade span, with a fairly even distribution grade to grade. The student body is almost entirely white, and the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch is low. Data on individualized education programs and English learner status was not available, so those populations could not be characterized. Because Strafford School does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and the state does not test prekindergarten, kindergarten, first, or second grade.

On New Hampshire's state assessments, the most recent results show a clear pattern in mathematics. Third-grade proficiency is strong, and fourth grade remains solid, but proficiency declines steadily through the upper grades. By fifth grade, fewer than half of tested students reach proficiency, and the rate continues downward through sixth, seventh, and eighth grade to a point where roughly a third of students demonstrate proficiency. This is a consistent slide across the middle grade band, and a parent may want to look into how the school supports math instruction and intervention as students move from elementary into middle grades.

English language arts results are more uneven. Third and fourth grade sit in a moderate range, and fifth and sixth grade dip lower. Seventh grade bounces back to a strong showing, and eighth grade settles back to a moderate level. The seventh-grade spike suggests some students find their footing in literacy in the upper middle grades, though the year-to-year variation across grades is wide enough that the ELA picture is best described as mixed rather than trending.

Science is assessed only in fifth and eighth grade. Fifth-grade science proficiency is low, while eighth grade reaches a moderate level, suggesting some improvement as students progress through the upper grades.

The housing market in Strafford is expensive relative to both national and state benchmarks. Typical home values sit above the New Hampshire state level and well above the national level, and the price-to-income ratio indicates that purchasing a home here requires a substantial income relative to local earnings. Rental data was not available. Parents considering a move should weigh the cost of entry into this community carefully.

Strafford School is a small, homogeneous, rural prekindergarten-through-eighth school in a town with limited services and no commercial core. Its youngest students perform well in math, but the upper-grade math decline is the most prominent feature of the assessment data. A family drawn to rural living, a tight-knit small school, and a quiet natural setting would find that here, with the caveat that the academic trajectory in math through the middle grades deserves attention.

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Academic performance

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

Math

Grade 369%

School 69% · District 69%

▲ 15 pts above state median · ▲ 22 pts above county median

Grade 456%

School 56% · District 56%

▲ 6 pts above state median · ▲ 11 pts above county median

Grade 542%

School 42% · District 42%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

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

Grade 735%

School 35% · District 35%

▼ 3 pts below state median

Grade 834%

School 34% · District 34%

▼ 2 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 353%

School 53% · District 53%

▲ 3 pts above state median · ▲ 8 pts above county median

Grade 446%

School 46% · District 46%

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

Grade 543%

School 43% · District 43%

▼ 15 pts below state median · ▼ 9 pts below county median

Grade 636%

School 36% · District 36%

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

Grade 765%

School 65% · District 65%

▲ 9 pts above state median

Grade 851%

School 51% · District 51%

▼ 2 pts below state median

Science

Grade 532%

School 32% · District 32%

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

Grade 850%

School 50% · District 50%

▲ 14 pts above state median

This schoolStrafford 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.