SNASHUA – Fewer than half of New Hampshire students are proficient in math or reading from grades four through 12, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The assessment, known as “The Nation’s Report Card” presents aggregate state results as percentages of students performing at or above three achievement levels (Basic, Proficient and Advanced). Students scoring at or above Proficient demonstrate solid academic content knowledge, according to the New Hampshire Department of Education.

In math, 48 percent of students in grade four, 45 percent of students in grade eight and only 32 percent of students in grade 12 are at or above a proficient level, according to the report.

The trend continues in reading with 43 percent, 45 percent and 45 percent in the respective grade levels.

Of the 4,500 students in grades four and eight who participated in the assessment, special education students, economically disadvantaged students and English-language learners were evaluated in their own categories.

Special education students in grade four were 12 percent and 16 percent scoring at or above proficient in reading and math respectively, and 10 percent and 14 percent in eighth grade.

For economically disadvantaged fourth graders, 23 percent and 28 percent scored proficient or higher, with 27 percent and 24 percent for reading and math in eighth grade.

There was no data for eighth grade English-language learners, but 26 percent and 31 percent of fourth grade ELL students were proficient in reading and math.

New Hampshire fourth graders made it past the halfway mark in science with 51 percent proficient or above, falling to 46 percent by eighth grade. No data was available for 12th.

The data is only available for states as a whole, with no breakdown by county or district.

“We are very pleased to see that New Hampshire remains one of the highest achieving states in the nation. This is a reflection of the engagement our New Hampshire families have in the education of their children and of the hard work and investment our teachers have made in the success of their students,” Frank Edelblut, commissioner of education said in a statement.

However, the achievement gap for minority, poverty and special education students has remained the same or worsened since 2003, he noted.

“We need to ask ourselves if the way we do school is really as effective as it can be when we get less than half of our students to proficiency with our far larger and persistent achievement gaps occurring with our minority, poverty and special education students. We now have an opportunity to close the gap for all our students.”

Despite low averages, New Hampshire students are performing among the top in the country. Grade four students were the fourth-highest achieving in reading and the second-highest in mathematics among all states according to the NH DOE. Grade eight students were the second-highest achieving in both reading and mathematics among all states.

For complete 2017 NAEP results the Nation’s Report Card can be found at https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/.

Hannah LaClaire can be reached at 594-1243 or hlaclaire@nashuatelegraph.com