Summary:
Zip code 03457 has one listed school, Nelson Elementary School, serving kindergarten through fifth grade in the Nelson community. The school enrolls 58 students, so families should expect a small-school setting rather than a choice among multiple local schools. It is part of the Nelson School District, and no middle schools, high schools, or alternative schools are listed within the zip code.
Nelson Elementary’s strongest academic area is mathematics. In 2025–2026, 61% of students were proficient in math, compared with 44% statewide. Third-grade math was especially strong, with 77% proficiency versus 54% statewide. Reading performance was about average for New Hampshire, at 55% proficient, while science was modestly above the state average, at 42% compared with 38%. Fifth-grade math is the main area to watch: 42% of students were proficient, nearly equal to the state rate but substantially below the school’s third-grade result. The school’s small enrollment and reported student-teacher ratio of 8.5 may allow for more individualized attention, although small classes can also make annual percentages shift noticeably when only a few students’ results change.
The school’s recent statewide ranking shows a notable improvement. Nelson Elementary moved from the 18th percentile in 2023–2024 to the 63rd percentile in 2025–2026, with its ranking improving from 191st of 234 schools to 84th of 230. Mathematics appears to be a major contributor to this stronger recent standing. From 2024–2025 to 2025–2026, math proficiency dipped slightly from 63% to 61%, while reading increased from 54% to 55%. Overall, the school offers a small, focused elementary environment with particularly strong recent math results; parents may want to ask about plans for sustaining those gains, strengthening fifth-grade math, and improving reading and science performance.
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