Concord School District Sees Some Student Assessment Improvements

CONCORD, NH — The latest New Hampshire Statewide Assessment System data for Concord School District students shows some improvement after the coronavirus pandemic but also room for more positive growth, according to the SAU 8 superintendent.

According to the data, English Language Arts proficiency has risen from 47 percent proficient in 2021 to 51 percent, or 2 percent shy of the state average. In Mathematics, it has grown from 27 percent to 36 percent, or about 5 points below the state average. The district has nearly 3,900 students, with dozens in out-of-placement settings.

The data, according to Kathleen Murphy, the superintendent of schools in Concord, has been trickling out “piecemeal” and was incomplete until now due to finalized scoring and ensuring students who were tested before moving out of Concord or are out-of-district placements were included in Concord’s data. In 2019, the district used the PACE system for state assessments, and there was no testing in 2020, so the latest data via the SAS test were conducted in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Murphy said the district could pull out the 2019 data and would have liked to, but “it’s not apples to apples.”

Efforts by the district to get students back on track appeared to be fruitful, she said, with “the district beginning to show a steady pattern of growth.” She added, “That’s really important.”

She said after a dip, ELA had shown “steady improvement, in a positive way,” since 2022 and is almost at the state average. Math, though, has been a tough nut to crack with the district “really struggling.”

Murphy said it was seen in the 2021 data when only 27 percent of students showed proficiency. But, since then, there has been nine percent growth to 36 percent.

After seeing the 2021 numbers, she said, the district brought in math coaches and new materials and was anxious to see how those helped to improve student achievement. School officials will be tracking student progress, especially in the early grades. They made sure they were aligned so when students got to middle school, they were prepared. In the past, not all elementary schools worked with the same program. Middle school students are being exposed to pre-algebra, so they are ready for high school, too, Murphy said.

Murphy said Concord, as the third largest city in New Hampshire, was more like Manchester and Nashua regarding assessments due to similar demographics. This made it hard to analyze compared to many smaller school districts in the state data. To get to the state average was a good sign of positivity.

“We’re pleased to see the trajectory,” she said, “however, we believe we are capable of greater achievement by our students … I’m optimistic … and we are not satisfied. The district is working very hard.”

The district has spent money on new materials and focused on teacher training. It is also tracking students in cohorts to see how they improve as they progress in each grade.

Today, she said, kindergarteners during the pandemic are now in the upper elementary grades. Some did not perform well with online learning, she said. So, Murphy used temporary ESSA money to add staff. While the money did go away, “While I had it, I hired teachers to assist with learning … you’ve got to get teachers in front of kids.”

In the collection of charts, the district also picked a similar-sized New Hampshire school district (3,904 to 3,018) with the same number of economically disadvantaged students (37 percent for Concord and 35 percent for the mystery district) and students with disability numbers (21 percent for Concord and 20 percent for the other district). The side-by-side comparison found both districts were below the state average for math, but Concord was about 5 percent higher than the other district. In ELA, both schools were at 51 percent, again, just 2 percent shy of the state average.

One glaring concern in the numbers, though, is a nosedive in math proficiency at Concord High School during the past year.

While the district had seen growth of 4 percent and the state saw a dip of 1 percent, CHS dropped by 8 percent. Murphy said the district would focus on working closer with the middle school to have “a seamless transition” between the schools for future grades. They will also be eyeing data and competencies to see where the testing problems are. Another change, she said, was making sure ninth-graders took the PSAT so some of this lack of proficiency was found earlier, before 11th grade.

“It’s never too late, but it’s late,” Murphy said of the year before graduation.

While not getting into specifics, Murphy said the district did lose some high school math and science teachers to retirements, and “that is a piece of the puzzle.” But the work now would be finding out what the students did not understand and fixing that.

Another noticeable drop in the data was between 2022 and 2023 in the science category at Abbot-Downing Elementary School. The school went from 30 percent to 15 percent but then back up to 38 percent.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said, but would be taking a deeper look at the data.

Murphy said the data showed students “moving in the right direction” and improving overall. With the elementary schools picking up the pace, new programs, and other initiatives, “We have a lot of room to grow,” she said, adding, “We’ll see how we do.”

The entire packet for Monday’s meeting, including all the charts, can be found on the agenda for the board of education meeting on Jan. 6, 2025, linked here.

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