Some positive news for New Hampshire!
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Results The release of Grades 4 and 8 Mathematics and Reading results for the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often referred to as “the Nation’s Report Card,” given to New Hampshire students last school year confirms the academic achievement of NH students. For both assessments in both grades, the percentage of NH students demonstrating Proficiency on the NAEP assessment increased compared to the previous assessment given in 2009. Along with Massachusetts, New Hampshire grade 4 students, on average, continue to have the highest performance compared to grade 4 students in all other states and jurisdictions throughout the nation on the NAEP Mathematics assessment. For Reading, New Hampshire grade 4 students retained their standing as one of the top-six highest performing states in the nation. Of the six, only Massachusetts had higher achievement that was statistically significant compared to New Hampshire. For grade 8, New Hampshire students were among the top-ten highest performing states in the Nation on both the Mathematics and Reading assessments. Only two states - Massachusetts and Minnesota, had higher achievement that was statistically significant compared to New Hampshire on the grade 8 Mathematics assessment. For Reading, only three states - Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, had higher achievement that was statistically significant compared to New Hampshire’s grade 8 students. For more information go to www.education.nh.gov/instruction/assessment/naep/index.htm
Fred C. Underhill School: Principal's Blog 
This doesn’t surprize me as I just read NH has the highest IQ scores in the nation as well. Also Drew, I found the answer to the question you were asked. We were right, Old English.
Old English has two digraphs (pairs of letters) that are commonly interpreted as diphthongs: ea and eo. Both ea and eo can represent short or long sounds, equivalent in length to the short and long vowels. Beyond this generally agreed fact, there is controversy about what sound these digraphs represent. Here we present the most widely accepted view.
eo represents [eo] or [eʊ], a diphthong that started with [e] and glided to a
rounded sound, [o] or [ʊ]. Examples: ċeorl ‘freeman’ (Modern English churl), dēop ‘deep’.
ea represents [æɑ], a diphthong that started with [æ]
and glided to [ɑ] (as in father). Feallan ‘fall’, rēad ‘red’.
Thought you’d like to know!
Thanks for looking in to this, Karena. There is a reason for everything, isn’t there? It’s also nice for the students to know that there is always a story to a rule. This way they won’t think that English is just a bunch of arbitrarily designed rules and impossible to understand. Thanks again, Karena
Drew
Ah Yes! but I would like to add the sources of irregularity in the English language and I know this because I am a FOREIGNER (just kidding) has to do with the introduction of printing and to Geophrey Chauceur (1345 and 1400) who introduced us to Medieval English. He changed the phonetic system “a bit” long vowels u as ou and short vowels as well. English is an amazing language. Lets do not forger to add to this mixture “world Englishes.” Contrary to popular belief nor England or America hold all the secrets to the English language as languages are constantly changing and English has adopted spelling and words from other languages as other countries were colonized. Not all the credit goes to the Brits! 🙂
I am happy by the results about NH. It does not surprise me either, however not for the same reasons stated by Karena. Of course IQ has a lot to do with positive results but lets do not forget quality of life, socioeconomics and good educational programs have a lot to do with these results and raised IQ’s. Technology may not be at the forefront of many schools and teacher’s minds, but we do have a lot of amazing and dedicated teachers in our schools. Additionally, parents in many NH communities are very committed to their children’s education and are strong advocates behind many educational initiatives in the State. I can think of towns as my own town of Henniker,but neighboring towns such as Hopkinton and Bow. Classrooms sizes are decreasing in many communities as well and that helps to differentiate and reach all students.