Summary:
ZIP code 03458, serving Peterborough, New Hampshire, includes four public schools serving grades PK–12: two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school, with about 1,542 students overall. Three schools belong to the Contoocook Valley School District, while Lionheart Classical Academy Chartered Public School is a separate chartered public school. The grade structure overlaps because Lionheart serves K–8, while Peterborough Elementary School serves PK–4 and South Meadow School serves grades 5–8.
South Meadow School is the strongest current overall performer based on its 55th-percentile ranking, three-star rating, balanced math and reading results, and lowest student-teacher ratio in the group. Its main weakness is science, where proficiency is 29%, below the 38% state average. Peterborough Elementary School has the strongest historical record, but its ranking fell from the 78th percentile to the 45th percentile over three years, while math proficiency dropped from 60% to 45% in the latest year. That recent decline is worth monitoring, even though current math performance remains slightly above the state average.
Lionheart Classical Academy Chartered Public School has uneven grade-level results but improved notably in math and reading, including especially strong seventh-grade performance. Science remains a significant concern, and its student-teacher ratio is the highest among the four schools. Conval Regional High School reports the area’s strongest graduation and dropout outcomes, along with reading results near the state average, but its mathematics proficiency is much lower than at the other schools. Across the area, reading is relatively consistent and close to the state average, while science is the clearest shared weakness and high-school mathematics deserves particular attention.
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