BEST (Building Essential Skills Today) For the Future

Ellen Hume-Howard / May 16, 2025

From PACE to PLACE: How New Hampshire is Redefining School Accountability Through Classroom-Aligned Innovation

In the national conversation about education reform, New Hampshire has quietly—but powerfully—paved the way for a new vision of school accountability. At the heart of this vision lies a transformative […]

Kathy White / January 22, 2024

Beyond Compliance: Unlocking the Power of Self-Direction

Discovering the Dimensions of Self-Direction for Student Engagement Self-direction is often considered compliance-oriented behavior such as attending class on time and bringing a charged device. However, those practices do not […]

Brian Stack / December 4, 2023

Preparing All NH Students for Success in an Interconnected and Complex World

New Hampshire’s Portrait of a Learner: Building Essential Skills for the Future The NH Portrait of a Learner (PoL) is pivotal in achieving a more comprehensive understanding of student success […]

Haley Ryan / October 2, 2023

A LETTER TO TEACHERS

NHLI occasionally features blogs by students of the Southern New Hampshire University’s Competency-Based Leadership and Learning graduate program. The blog below is a letter that Haley Ryan wrote to teachers […]

Bari Boisvert and Ann Hadwen / September 12, 2023

CULTIVATING CLASSROOM SUCCESS

Five Ideas for the New School Year Each September brings the promise of creating positive student relationships and the excitement of engaging students in meaningful learning. Teachers cultivate success in […]

NHLI / May 23, 2022

Habits of Success: Helping Students Develop Essential Skills for Learning, Work, and Life – by Eliot Levine

NHLI / January 3, 2021

Scaling Up Deeper Learning: Results From New Hampshire’s Statewide Efforts

Employers, colleges and families may not agree on much, but they tend to agree about this: our K-12 students need to develop essential skills like self-direction, collaboration, communication and creativity to successfully navigate college, career and community life. Trouble is, standardized tests and traditional assessments do not adequately capture whether students have developed these deeper learning skills. Too often, we test things we may not value and may not be all that important. Fortunately, leaders are working to change this, and the results are promising.

NHLI / January 13, 2020

The Challenges of Bringing Essential Skills Learning to Students

Creating a system that can accommodate a wide range of learning contexts across a state can be difficult.  Teachers and leaders in New Hampshire share how they are tackling the integration of essential skills (aka Work Study Practices or deeper learning) into their classrooms.

NHLI / December 9, 2019

How School Districts in New Hampshire are Bringing Essential Skills to their Students

School districts across New Hampshire are working to embed essential skills like self-direction, communication, collaboration and creativity into their classrooms.  Improving kids learning means getting the tools, resources and rationales to teachers.

Building Essential Skills Today (BEST) for the Future is an effort to elevate the teaching and assessment of essential skills in our schools.