Summary:
ZIP code 03602, which includes Alstead, New Hampshire, has one middle-level school: Vilas Elementary School, serving grades 5–8 in the Fall Mountain Regional School District. It is a small school with 108 students and a favorable 9.6-to-1 student-teacher ratio, offering a relatively small-school setting for middle-grade students.
Vilas’s strongest academic area is reading. In 2025–26, 65% of students were proficient in reading, compared with 49% across the district and 55% statewide. Reading performance exceeded the state average in every grade: fifth grade was especially strong at 80%, followed by seventh grade at 70%, sixth grade at 62%, and eighth grade at 54%. Science was another positive area, with 42% proficiency overall—above both the district’s 37% and the state’s 38%. Science improved by 6 percentage points from the previous year, and fifth grade performed particularly well at 50%.
Mathematics is the clearest area for improvement. Overall math proficiency was 37%, slightly above the district’s 35% but below the state’s 44%. Results improved gradually by grade, from 35% in fifth and sixth grades to 39% in eighth grade, which was nearly equal to the statewide 40%. Eighth-grade science, at 36%, was slightly below both the district and state, while eighth-grade reading was lower than the school’s other reading results but still above the state average. The school ranked 63rd of 138 schools in 2025–26, placing it near the middle statewide and improving slightly in percentile terms from the prior year, although it remained below its 2023–24 ranking of 26th. Overall, families can expect particularly strong reading performance, improving science results, and a need for continued attention to mathematics.
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