Dover - EdTribune NH - New Hampshire Education Data

20 New Hampshire Districts Hit All-Time Low Graduation Rates in 2025

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Something went wrong across New Hampshire in 2025 — not in one district, not in one region, but everywhere.

Twenty districts posted their lowest four-year graduation rate in at least 11 years of available data, a surge in all-time lows that cut across geography, wealth, and district size. The list includes the state capital (Concord^↗, 73.0 percent), the second-largest city (Nashua^↗, 82.3 percent), and a string of affluent suburbs — Bedford^↗ at 87.8 percent, Londonderry^↗ at 87.8 percent, Goffstown^↗ at 87.7 percent — that had never dipped this low.

This happened in a year when the state's dropout rate fell to its lowest level on record: 2.2 percent.

Where the Lows Hit

The 20 districts at all-time low are all traditional public school districts — not a single charter school appears on the list, though several charters carry far lower rates. What unifies the all-time-low districts is that 2025 represented a break from their own history, not that they are the state's worst performers in absolute terms.

Farmington^↗, at 70.7 percent with a 58-student cohort, posted the lowest rate among traditional districts at all-time low. Hudson^↗, a southern New Hampshire suburb of 254 graduates, fell to 77.6 percent. Berlin^↗, the North Country's largest community, dropped to 78.3 percent.

But the most consequential records were set by larger districts. Concord's 73.0 percent — a 9.2-point drop from the prior year — left the capital with a lower graduation rate than Manchester^↗, historically the state's weakest performer among large cities. Nashua's 82.3 percent extended a three-year decline streak that has erased a decade of progress.

The Contrast with All-Time Highs

Not every district fell. Eleven districts posted all-time highs in 2025, including Oyster River Coop^↗ at 99.1 percent, Epping^↗ at 100 percent, and Dover^↗ at 91.5 percent. Merrimack^↗ reached 91.9 percent and Windham^↗ hit 96.6 percent.

But the math is lopsided. For every district that reached a new peak in 2025, roughly two hit a new floor. In most prior years, the ratio was closer to even. The 2021 COVID year, when the state's overall rate dipped to 87.1 percent, produced fewer all-time lows than 2025.

Suburban Districts in Unfamiliar Territory

Perhaps the most striking feature of the 2025 data is where the new lows appeared. Bedford and Londonderry are communities where median household incomes exceed $100,000, school funding is abundant, and graduation has historically been all but guaranteed. Bedford peaked at 97.8 percent in 2017. Londonderry peaked at 96.4 percent the same year. Both have fallen roughly 10 points from those peaks — a decline that would be alarming in any district, but is shocking in communities with these resources.

Goffstown, another southern New Hampshire suburb, dropped to 87.7 percent from a peak of 95.2 percent. Fall Mountain Regional fell to 83.2 percent. Pembroke hit 82.6 percent.

The pattern suggests that whatever drove the 2025 reversal — and the data cannot isolate a single cause — was not confined to under-resourced districts. It reached into communities where the educational infrastructure is, by any measure, strong.

The Missing Explanation

New Hampshire's graduation data lacks the demographic breakdowns that would help explain why 2025 was different. The state does not report graduation rates by race, income status, English proficiency, or disability designation at the district level. All we can say is that the dropout rate reached a historic low while the graduation rate also dropped, meaning the "unaccounted" population — students who were still enrolled, transferred, or earned a HiSET equivalency — grew to its largest share.

Whether the 20 all-time lows reflect a cohort-specific composition effect, the lagged impact of pandemic-era learning disruptions finally reaching the senior year, or something else entirely is a question the data raises but cannot answer.

The New Hampshire Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.

Data Source

This analysis uses four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate data from the New Hampshire Department of Education, covering the graduating classes of 2015 through 2025. A district is classified as "at all-time low" if its 2025 rate equals its minimum rate across all available years, with at least three years of data required.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

Manchester's Quiet Turnaround: 4-Year Streak Lifts NH's Largest District

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Manchester^↗, the district New Hampshire has spent a generation worrying about, is doing something it has almost never done: getting better.

The state's largest city graduated 75.6 percent of its Class of 2025 — the fourth consecutive year of improvement and the culmination of a climb from the 67.8 percent trough posted by the Class of 2021. That 7.8 percentage-point gain over four years is the longest active improvement streak of any large district in the state.

The timing makes it more remarkable. Manchester improved in 2025 while the statewide rate crashed 1.6 points. It improved while Concord^↗, the capital, dropped to 73.0 percent. It improved while 20 districts hit all-time lows.

Where Manchester Started

To appreciate the 2025 number, you have to understand how deep the hole was. Manchester has been New Hampshire's lowest-performing large district for as long as the data exists. In 2015, its 75.8 percent graduation rate trailed the state average by more than 12 points. When COVID hit, the rate cratered: 70.2 percent for the Class of 2020, then 67.8 percent for the Class of 2021 — meaning one in three Manchester students did not graduate on time.

The four-year recovery has been steady rather than dramatic: 72.1 percent in 2022, 73.5 percent in 2023, 74.2 percent in 2024, and 75.6 percent in 2025. Each step was a small gain — 1 to 4 points — but the consistency matters. Manchester has not posted four consecutive increases at any other point in the dataset.

What Hasn't Changed

The progress is real, but the context tempers it. Manchester's 2025 rate of 75.6 percent is essentially the same as its 2015 rate of 75.8 percent. After a decade that included a collapse and a recovery, the district ended up back where it started.

And the dropout rate remains stubbornly high. Manchester posted an 11.4 percent dropout rate in 2025 — five times the state average and the highest among large districts by a wide margin. Over 11 years, Manchester has never recorded a dropout rate below 8.4 percent, and it has exceeded 10 percent in eight of those years. In raw numbers, 110 Manchester students dropped out of the Class of 2025, roughly one-third of all dropouts statewide from a single district.

When combined with the 75.6 percent graduation rate and the 11.4 percent dropout rate, about 13 percent of Manchester's cohort falls into the "unaccounted" category — still enrolled, transferred, or pursuing alternative credentials. That is higher than the state's 10.3 percent but lower than some might expect given the district's challenges.

Manchester Among Its Peers

The 2025 results reshuffled the hierarchy among New Hampshire's cities. Manchester, historically at the bottom, now outperforms Concord (73.0 percent). Nashua^↗, long viewed as Manchester's more successful neighbor, has closed from a 14-point advantage in 2015 to just 7 points.

Meanwhile, Dover^↗ surged to an all-time high of 91.5 percent, opening a 16-point gap over Manchester. Rochester^↗ held steady at 82.8 percent. The variation among cities of similar size — from Dover's 91.5 to Manchester's 75.6 — shows how much local context matters in a small state where all five cities share the same funding formula.

A 965-Student Challenge

Manchester's graduating cohort of 965 students is the largest in the state — bigger than Nashua (854), Pinkerton Academy^↗ (742), or Concord (371). In a state where many districts graduate fewer than 100 students, the scale of Manchester's challenge is different in kind.

With 965 students in the cohort, even a 1-point improvement means roughly 10 additional students crossing the stage. The four-year improvement of 7.8 points translates to approximately 75 more students graduating than the 2021 rate would have produced. Whether those additional graduates found their way through credit recovery, extended learning, or simply more effective supports, the district is reaching students it was losing just four years ago.

Manchester did not respond to a request for comment.

Data Source

This analysis uses four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate data from the New Hampshire Department of Education, covering the graduating classes of 2015 through 2025.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.