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NHLI | New Hampshire Learning Initiative
All Students Deserve a Quality Education
/ September 5, 2025
Reimagining Professional Development: Putting Educators at the Center of Change
This school year, the New Hampshire Learning Initiative (NHLI) is launching its 2025-2026 professional development program designed with and for educators. Built around the realities of today’s classrooms, this program blends high-impact instructional support with teacher-led collaboration, ensuring that professional learning is both relevant and sustaining.
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Educators will engage in practical, research-informed sessions focused on strengthening instruction, fostering student engagement, and creating authentic learning experiences. Just as importantly, our program creates space for teachers to support other teachers—sharing strategies, modeling lessons, and building a culture of trust and collective growth. We know the expertise needed already exists in our schools; our role is to bring it forward, connect it, and amplify its impact.
Across New Hampshire—and beyond—teachers are working in one of the most challenging educational climates we’ve ever seen. Students are wrestling with disengagement, classrooms are more diverse in needs than ever before, and new technologies are reshaping the face of learning. In the middle of it all, teachers continue to show up every day, committed to making a difference. And when we listen to them, they tell us the same thing: “We want to grow in ways that help our students thrive, but we need the right kind of support to do it.”
At NHLI, we believe that no policy or program can drive meaningful change on its own. The difference-makers are the educators in the classroom. If we want lasting improvements in student learning, we have to start by prioritizing teacher growth, agency, and leadership.
What Teachers Are Telling Us They Need
In conversations with educators across the state, common themes keep emerging:
(1) Time to focus on teaching—especially strategies that build engagement and deepen understanding.
(2) Tools they can use right away—grounded in research but practical for real classrooms.
(3) Support for fostering student ownership—so learners see relevance in what they’re doing and can take the lead in their progress.
(4) Respect for their professional expertise—including space to collaborate and create solutions together.
(5) Ongoing coaching and follow-up, because learning to teach differently takes time and feedback.
This isn’t about piling more on teachers’ plates. It’s about giving them the space, resources, and trust to focus on what matters most.
How NHLI Sees the Power of Investing in Teachers
We’ve seen it time and again:
(1) Teachers become designers of authentic learning, creating experiences that are challenging, relevant, and meaningful
(2) Collaboration flourishes, as educators share what works and refine ideas together.
(3) Leadership emerges from every classroom, with teachers stepping into mentoring, facilitation, and school-wide change roles.
(4) Student outcomes shift, not just in achievement but in engagement, confidence, and ownership of learning.
Our Commitment
We design professional learning that:
(1) Centers student engagement through authentic, competency-based, and performance-driven practices.
(2) Lifts both student and teacher agency, knowing they rise together.
(3) Offers strategies grounded in New Hampshire’s educational vision, including the Portrait of a Graduate and revised 306 Minimum Standards.
(4) Builds professional networks that sustain collaboration over time.
(5) Bridges the gap between vision and classroom reality, making change both practical and lasting.
If we want students to be curious, capable, and future-ready, we must invest in the educators who guide them. Professional development isn’t an add-on—it’s the engine of educational change.
At NHLI, we know this for certain: when teachers are given the trust, time, and tools to lead, they transform learning. And when that happens, students reach their potential.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW NHLI’S PD OFFERINGS FOR 2025-2026 AS A FLIPBOOK
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD NHLI’S PD OFFERINGS FOR 2025-2026 AS A PDF
Ellen Hume-Howard
Executive Director
Ellen Hume-Howard has served as Executive Director of the New Hampshire Learning Initiative (NHLI), a leading organization dedicated to advancing innovative, student-centered learning practices since 2017. A visionary leader and champion for competency-based education, Ellen has played a pivotal role in transforming instructional practices in New Hampshire and influencing educational reform nationwide. Under her guidance, NHLI has become a model for designing equitable and personalized learning systems that prepare students for future success. With a career spanning decades in public education, Ellen is known for her ability to empower educators, foster collaborative partnerships, and inspire systemic change that resonates far beyond state lines.
Categories: AI in Education CBL Instruction Competency Development Competency-Based Education Competency-Based Learning (CBL) Educational Best Practices Educational Trends Student-Centered Learning Teacher Professional Development