While Hooksett continues to track overcrowding in classrooms at Manchester High School Central, Superintendent Charles Littlefield is investigating alternative schools, with Pinkerton Academy in Derry at the top of the list.

Parents who attended the Hooksett School Board's last meeting softly applauded when Littlefield mentioned he had already been speaking with Pinkerton administrators about accepting Hooksett students should the town decide to end its long-standing contract with Manchester.

Although Hooksett will be looking at a variety of factors in assessing different schools, according to the latest scores on the New England Common Assessment Program or NECAP tests, Pinkerton and Central students are not far apart. Overall, Pinkerton students scored higher in math, but Central students have higher scores in writing.

School board member David Pearl, who is a member of the new High School Assessment Committee, said the group hasn't started looking at specific data from different districts yet. And Pearl also noted that previous sets of scores don't reflect how the current problems at Central, which are the result of the $8 million school budget shortfall, will affect student achievement.

Still, Pearl said, the scores may reflect something that's been lost in the current discussion among parents worried and frustrated that their kids are packed into classrooms or unable to register for courses they need to fulfill graduation requirements.

“For a long time, Central set the standard,” said Pearl.

The dilemma

Though Hooksett is obligated to give Manchester 180 days to solve its current problems and bring class sizes into line with state standards of 30 students per class, many worry that the gap between the school district's resources and its needs may be too wide to overcome.

Although Littlefield has been talking with superintendents from Londonderry and Goffstown, he acknowledged his discussions with Pinkerton had been more than informal.

“Pinkerton knows some of our kids and they like the product they get from Hooksett,” he said.

Littlefield reminded parents and the school board that he had successfully negotiated a contract for Auburn students to begin attending Pinkerton next year. And should Hooksett decide to end its contract with Manchester, Pinkerton would be the only alternative school that would give Hooksett any governing authority by providing the town two seats on the schools board of directors.

“Pinkerton provides a voice for all sending communities,” said Littlefield.

And Pinkerton is the only school that could accept all of Hooksett's roughly 550 high school students, he added.

According to Littlefield, Pinkerton has an optimum student population of 2,800 to 3,000 students. That range allows the school to run its campus and extensive list of programs and courses at an optimal level.

“Our 550 students would bring them into that optimum range,” said Littlefield.

According to Pinkerton's website, approximately 3,100 students from Derry, Chester and Hampstead currently attend the school.

The test scores

While test scores are only one piece of any school's story, NECAP scores may deflate the impression that students in large urban schools are lagging behind.

NECAP scores are divided into four categories: level 4, which signifies a high level of achievement; level 3, which indicates a student is succeeding at grade-appropriate work; level 2, which shows students meet some, but not all grade-level expectations; and level 1, which indicates a student is substantially below grade level.

In the latest round of 2011-12 testing of high school juniors, only 2 percent of students at both Pinkerton and Central received level 4 scores in math. At Pinkerton, 31 percent of the students scored level 3, or proficient, while 29 percent of Central students were ranked in that group.

The greatest difference in math scores was in the lower two groups. At Pinkerton, 33 percent of the students were partially proficient in math, while 34 percent were substantially below grade level.

At Central, 27 percent of the students scored a level 2 rank, while 42 percent ranked at level 1.

On last year's writing test, 44 percent of Pinkerton students were in the top two levels, while 56 percent of Central students were in levels 3 and 4.

Reading scores for the two schools were in the same ranges. Last year, 85 percent of Pinkerton students scored in the top two levels compared to 77 percent of Central students.

However, in science, 33 percent of Central students were substantially below grade level, while at Pinkerton, 16 percent of the students who tested were ranked at level 1.

btaormina@newstote.com

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New England Common Assessment Program Tests Scores Grade 11 for 2011-12
(number of students/percent of class)
Manchester Central
	Level 4	Level 3	Level  2	Level  1
Reading	151/ 33%	204/ 44%	71/15%	38/8%
Math	8/2%	134/29%	125/27%	196/42%
Writing	12/3%	244/53%	188/41%	20/4%
Science	5/1%	106/26%	162/40%	136/33%
Pinkerton  Academy
	Level 4	Level 3	Level  2	Level  1
Reading	267/36%	358/49%	75/10%	35/5%
Math	15/2%	226/31%	243/33%	248/34%
Writing	29/4%	296/40%	356/44%	52/7%
Science	8/1%	241/32%	379/51%	121/16%
State Scores
	Level 4	Level 3	Level  2	Level  1
Reading	4,373/30%	6,941/47%	2,137/15%	1,286/9%
Math	368/2%	4,967/34%	3,953/27%	5,438/37%
Writing	548/4%	6,123/42%	6,718/46%	1,319/9%
Science	245/2%	2,253/31%	6,386/45%	3,209/22%