Summary:
Nelson School District has one elementary school, Nelson Elementary School, serving kindergarten through fifth grade in the small community of Nelson, New Hampshire. The school enrolls 58 students, or roughly 10 students per grade on average, and reports an 8.5-to-1 student-teacher ratio. Its small size may support personalized attention and close relationships, although yearly test results can change noticeably when only a few students are involved.
Nelson Elementary School performs especially well in mathematics. In 2025–2026, 61% of students were proficient in math, compared with 44% statewide. Third-grade math was the strongest result, with 77% proficiency—23 percentage points above New Hampshire. Science performance was also somewhat better than the state, at 42% compared with 38%. Reading was broadly typical for the state: overall reading proficiency was 55%, matching New Hampshire, while third-grade reading was slightly higher and fifth-grade reading was equal to the state.
The main area parents may want to monitor is fifth-grade mathematics. Proficiency there was 42%, essentially matching the state’s 43% but considerably below the school’s third-grade math result. This difference may reflect varying grade-level content, student cohorts, or the effects of small enrollment, so it should not be viewed as a definitive measure of student progress without additional growth data. The school’s statewide ranking improved substantially, rising from the 18th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 63rd percentile in 2025–2026, and its reported rating increased from one star to three. Overall, the school shows strong current math performance, steady reading outcomes, and modestly above-average science results.
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