Summary:
Amherst, New Hampshire, has three public schools serving students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12: Clark-Wilkins School for PK–4, Amherst Middle School for grades 5–8, and Souhegan Coop High School for grades 9–12. Together, they enroll about 2,007 students. The elementary and middle schools belong to the highly rated Amherst School District, while the high school is part of the separately operated, highly rated Souhegan Cooperative School District. All three schools rank around the top 10% to 15% statewide and perform above New Hampshire averages.
Souhegan Coop High School is the strongest overall performer and has shown the most dramatic ranking improvement, moving from 19th to 6th among comparable New Hampshire high schools over three years. It has a 94.1% graduation rate, well above the 87% state rate, and a very low 0.5% dropout rate. Reading proficiency is especially strong at 81%, followed by science at 73%. Mathematics is the school’s main relative weakness at 46%, only slightly above the state average, so families may want to explore math support and course pathways. Souhegan Coop High School also recorded a particularly large recent science improvement.
Clark-Wilkins School is the standout for elementary mathematics, with 74% proficiency overall and 80% in fourth grade. It has remained near the top 10% of New Hampshire elementary schools. Amherst Middle School offers consistently strong results across subjects—64% mathematics, 71% reading, and 56% science—and improved its ranking from 29th to 14th over three years. Reading and science have recently improved at the middle school, although mathematics declined modestly. Overall, Amherst provides a strong, continuous educational pathway, with its clearest area for attention being the transition to high school mathematics.
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