Assessing the Effectiveness of New Hampshire Elementary Schools: An Effective Schools Approach

Despite consistently strong performances among NH 4th graders on the NAEP assessments, large disparities have been observed among NH elementary students on the NECAP assessments based on race and SES. The current study assessed the effectiveness of NH elementary schools, as defined by the effective schools research. Of the 209 elementary schools included in the current study, 8.6% were effective for reading, while 9% were effective for math. Multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that student body composition, school funding practices, and teacher qualifications could each differentiate effective schools from other schools. The percentage of low-income students in a school had the strongest explanatory power on the effectiveness of schools accounting for 84% of the variability in the effectiveness of schools for reading and 86% of the variability in the effectiveness of schools for math. Student body composition was found to be highly associated with school funding practices and teacher qualifications