QUESTIONS WORTH ASKING Are Your Kids’ Test Scores Relevant? Here’s something you may not have known: About 88% of New Hampshire’s Class of 2025 graduated from high school. But when that same cohort was tested in Grade 11, only 63% demonstrated proficiency in reading and 30% in math. That’s quite a gap. It made me … Read more
Microschools are one of the fastest-growing education options in New Hampshire and across the country, yet many families have never heard of them. In a new episode of the Choosing School podcast, Moms Who Started Microschools, EdOpt President Jody Underwood spoke with three New Hampshire moms who started their own microschools: Kitty Michelotti of Latitude … Read more
Apologies — the post that went out earlier today was an incomplete one! Here’s the post I intended to send today. Also, we’re trying different times to see what works best for you. -Jody Families Need Solutions Now A recent article criticizing the latest Education Scorecard report raises an important question: What happened to student … Read more
Microschools are one of the fastest-growing education options in New Hampshire and across the country, yet many families have never heard of them. In a recent episode of the Choosing School podcast, EdOpt President Jody Underwood spoke with three New Hampshire moms who started their own microschools: Kitty Michelotti of Latitude Learning in Derry, Heather … Read more
Over the past two years, EdOpt has held 20 education fairs across New Hampshire, from Seacoast to Manchester, Claremont to Candia. We’ve spoken with hundreds of families and collected survey responses from dozens of attendees. While the survey numbers are relatively small, the patterns are remarkably consistent. Perhaps the most important thing we’ve learned is … Read more
Last week, EdOpt hosted another education options fair in Claremont. Ten families signed in and spent time talking with schools, homeschoolers, and other education providers. If you’re measuring success purely by attendance, ten families may not sound like a lot. But that’s not how we measure success. The families who come to our fairs are … Read more
The EdOpt Fair in Claremont is taking place Wednesday June 3! Come join us and have one-on-one conversations with these providers: Don’t forget to stop by the EdOpt table if you want some guidance. Looking forward to seeing you there! This will be our last fair until the end of July. Please check out our … Read more
About 51% of fourth-grade students in our state are still not reading proficiently. In addition, we have a significant gap in the literacy proficiency rate of children with disabilities. The New Hampshire Department of Education supports a number of efforts to support families to help their children learn to read, including children with special needs. … Read more
EdOpt is holding 3, count ’em, three Fairs during National School Choice Week, the last week of January 2026. EdOpt Fair Schedule Children’s Scholarship Fund of NH is also holding a National School Choice Showcase & Fair on Wednesday, January 28, from 10am to noon at the Grappone Conference Center, Granite Ballroom. Be prepared to … Read more
Schools get a lot of money to provide the supports that Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) or 504 plans specify. These plans are supposed to ensure that students receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) by schools receiving federal funds. I have heard stories from families about special needs children who aren’t getting the services they … Read more
We are celebrating our first full year as an organization. Looking back at the year gives me hope that we can achieve our mission. EdOpt was named an “All Star” by the National School Choice Awareness Foundation. Our website was refreshed to make it easy to find homeschool and education providers around the state and … Read more
A mom in the NH EFA Home Educators Facebook group recently asked where she could find physical activities for her two homeschooled girls somewhere between Hillsboro and Concord. There were a few responses, which looked helpful. This is exactly the type of thing EdOpt supports. I quickly found 19 possible activities on our website in … Read more
In response to my recent newsletter about alternative high schools in New Hampshire, I got an email from Crystal Sawyer. She asked if I knew about Adult Education and how they help high school students with alternative pathways. Turns out, I didn’t! There’s just so much to learn about the education options in NH. I … Read more
A couple of years ago at a school board meeting, our principal said that they really don’t know how to teach kids to read. This shocked me. I wrote about it here in a series of 8 articles that explored student reading at schools in the Upper Valley area of New Hampshire and Vermont. Many … Read more
A parent — we’ll call her Sally — contacted me recently about the options for Anna (also an alias), her 14-year-old daughter who just doesn’t fit into her district schools. She is smart, but not academically driven. She gets bullied. Really, she’s never been a good student. Sally is a single mom with a full … Read more
For those of you who homeschool, or are considering homeschooling, Moira Mills started an amazing community about unschooling at skool.com that I invite you to check out. Decondition Together: A Community for the Deschooled and the Unschooling-Curious What if the real work of homeschooling isn’t curriculum at all, but deconditioning? Decondition Together is a space … Read more
