Dear New Hampshire Citizens,
Welcome to the New Hampshire Department of Education School District Profile. In response to RSA 193-E:3, the Department has developed this web-site as one way for all New Hampshire residents to access information about their schools and communities.
The purpose of the School District profile is to help anyone involved with education in their local community - parents, professional educators, school board members, students, business and community leaders - to learn more about their schools. The Profiles are meant to help foster deeper conversations about the quality of our schools, but numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Test scores are important, but only if they prompt us to also look closer at other facets of the educational landscape. Our hope is that people will use the information that is available to ask substantive questions about their schools, the quality of instruction and student learning, such as:
- What are the most important educational goals for your district and schools?
- Do your goals describe desired student outcomes?
- How is success measured?
- What investment is being made in high-quality professional development?
- What does quality student work look like and how can instruction be provided to support it?
- How can we assure that our facilities are up-to-date?
- Are parents confident that schools are healthy and safe environments?
- How have districts and schools developed a strong partnership with parents and community members?
- What investment is being made in teacher recruitment, training and support?
- What investment does your community make in early learning?
The law requires that the Department rank order our school communities in terms of their performance on our statewide NHEAIP tests. While there may be the urge to compare schools across communities, and numbers and test scores can point us in the right direction, ultimately it will be our ability to focus the discussion on three simple questions:
- What do we want our students to know and be able to do?
- How will we measure their success and progress?
- What will we do in terms of our educational programs to make sure we accomplish the goals we have?
However you choose to use this tool, we hope it supports your efforts to be an even more involved member of your school community. We are very interested in your feedback regarding how useful and accessible this information is to you? Share with us your comments and let us know if you are a student, parent, educator, or community member. What is the best part of the profile? What improvements would you recommend? Please let us know by using the "Contact the Department" on the navigation bar of the School District Profile or send written comments to Sallie Fellows, Information Services, New Hampshire Department of Education, 101 Pleasant Street, Concord, N.H. 03301. Thank you.