Seacoast schools shine in U.S. News rankings: See how they scored

Seacoast elementary and middle school students are among the highest performing in New Hampshire, according to U.S. News and World Report's school rankings.

Rye Elementary School took first place among peer schools, and Rye Junior High ranked fourth place in the middle school category.

The nationwide news magazine used both socioeconomic factors as well as state assessment mathematics and reading/language scores in determining its ranking of 211 New Hampshire elementary and 114 middle schools. According to U.S. News, half of the assessed value reflects assessment scores themselves, while the other 50% “incorporated the test results in the context of socioeconomic demographics.”

“In other words,” according to U.S. News, “the top-ranked schools are all high-achieving and have succeeded at educating all their students.”

The socioeconomic factors taken into consideration by U.S. News include the percentage of both minority and economically disadvantaged students in a school’s population. Its analysis of low-income students is defined as “those eligible for free and reduced-price lunch.”

In its analysis methodology, U.S. News states that in every state, students suffering economic disadvantages “tend to score lower than other students on state assessments, even when controlling for other factors.” According to U.S. News, “the same is true of students from historically underserved ethnicities … although economics typically had greater explanatory power than ethnicity.”

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How Seacoast elementary schools ranked

Rye Elementary earned first place with state assessment test scores indicating that 92% of its 210 students are at or above proficiency in math and 82% in reading. The school has 7% minority and 1% of students considered economically disadvantaged.

Rye Elementary School credits its success to the resources and support from the Rye community, said Principal Michelle Pitts. The school also prides itself on its focus on STEAM — science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

The school has a teacher completely dedicated to STEAM and covers technology standards, according to Pitts. It similarly has a teacher focused on the school’s weekly outdoor education program.

“We do have some unique programming,” Pitts said.

Portsmouth's New Franklin School placed second in the state with 77% of its 265 grades K-5 students at or above proficient for math, and 87% for reading.

Portsmouth's other two public elementary schools were also ranked highly: Little Harbour School came in 11th while Portsmouth’s Dondero School came in at 22nd.

At Little Harbour School, 72% of its 355 pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade students are at or above proficiency in math and 77% in reading skills. Dondero School had 57% of its 318 K-5 students at or above proficiency in math and 67% in reading.

Little Harbor School and Dondero School have similar minority populations, at 23% and 28%, respectively. However, Dondero has more than twice the percentage of economically disadvantaged students, at 17%, compared to Little Harbor's 7%.

Mast Way School of Lee was ranked No. 8.

Hampton’s Marston School came in 21st on the list with 59% of its 297 grade 3 through 5 students at or above proficiency in math and 66% in reading. The student body includes 15% minority and 9% economically disadvantaged.

North Hampton School is listed as 28th in the ranking for elementary schools. The pre-k through grade 8 school has 300 students with 62% at or above proficiency in math and 72% in reading, 6% minority students, and 2% considered economically disadvantaged.

Other Seacoast elementary schools in the top 50 include Greenland Central School at 25, Swasey Central School Brentwood at 41, and Kensington Elementary School at 56. Garrison School in Dover came in at 75, Stratham Memorial School was No. 86 and Lincoln Street School in Exeter was 94th.

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How Seacoast middle schools ranked

Among New Hampshire middle schools, Rye Junior High School is ranked fourth, with 67% of its 181 students in grades 5-8 at or above proficiency in math and 77% in reading.

Greenland Central School's middle school grades came in sixth while North Hampton School ranks ninth.

Portsmouth Middle School came in at 13th with 52% of its 491 students in grades 6-8 scoring at or above proficiency in math and 66% in reading.

The Virtual Learning Academy in Exeter ranked 16th while Hampton Academy came in 19th, with 41% of its 335 grade 6-8 students in math and 66% in reading. The Hampton school population is 11% minority and 14% economically disadvantaged.

Other Seacoast middle schools in the top 50 include Newmarket Junior Senior High School at 34, Barrington Middle School at 47, Cooperative Middle School in Stratham at 40, Epping Middle School at 42, and Dover Middle School at 46.

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Why some Seacoast schools did not make the list

Not all schools in the Seacoast are included in U.S. News rankings, but not necessarily because of poor performance. According to U.S. News, those unranked public schools with “fewer than 20 students enrolled in the federal government dataset,” or with “fewer than 30 test-takers in reading/language arts and math, or for which usable state assessment data could not be obtained, are among those unranked.”

Two Seacoast schools fell into the unranked category, Hampton Falls’ Lincoln Akerman School and South Hampton’s Barnard School. With only 182 and 86 students, respectively, these two K-8 schools may not have had sufficient data in class sampling to be included in the U.S. News ranking system, but according to their state test proficiency scores, they are high-performing.

At Lincoln Akerman, 62% of its students scored at or above proficiency in math and 82% in reading. The population includes 10% minority and 2% economically disadvantaged.

In South Hampton, 78% of Barnard students were proficient in English Language Arts compared to 63% in 2019. In math, 76% of Barnard students were proficient compared to 68% in 2019.

Gains in science were even more significant. In 2023, 64% of Barnard students were proficient compared to 42% in 2019.

While many New Hampshire schools were teaching remotely in the fall of 2020, the Barnard School kept its doors open and classrooms filled.

“We are extremely proud of our teachers, staff and families for continuing to make education a top priority, despite the challenges we faced during and after the pandemic,’’ Principal Michelle Witt said. “Our student test scores show that our hard work is paying off.’’

Witt said changes that have led to increased student performance include a new math curriculum and the implementation of a multi-tiered support system to ensure that students receive targeted support based on their individual needs.

Lincoln Akerman School Principal Beth Raucci isn’t bothered by being left unranked and off U.S. News’ list. Raucci recently analyzed October’s recently released scores of the spring 2023 state assessment scores. She was very pleased with what she found.

“From what I saw, Lincoln Akerman and South Hampton test scores were both in the top 10 in the state,” she said.

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Are school rankings important?

According to Hampton SAU 90's Superintendent Dr. Lois Costa, state proficiency scores should be viewed not just as a snapshot of a single year’s results, but how students are doing from year to year.

What educators across the country have found, she said, is that the COVID-19 pandemic hurt learning. As schools closed, she said, sending students home for remote education, learning levels, as well as retention levels, fell.

However, Costa said, the most recent test scores for Hampton students indicate that due to a concentrated effort, those disparities in learning are filling in at Marston School and Hampton Academy.

“We weren’t where we wanted to be in 2021,” Costa said. “But in light of the pandemic, according to our most recent test scores, we’re working in the right direction. We’re taking steps to close the achievement gaps.”

Costa said she’s very proud of the students in Hampton schools for working hard and taking their place among the top quarter of U S. News’ rankings, adding her thanks to students, staff and the entire community, “whose dedication is a key factor to our school's continuing success."

To view US News and World Reports complete rankings for middle schools in New Hampshire, visit usnews.com/education/k12/middle-schools/new-hampshire.

To access the ranking for New Hampshire elementary schools, visit usnews.com/education/k12/elementary-schools/new-hampshire.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: U.S. News school rankings: Did Seacoast schools make the grade?