NHLI | New Hampshire Learning Initiative
All Students Deserve a Quality Education
NHLI Blogs
NHLI is pleased to offer blogs around the advancements and challenges in education with a special focus on competency-based learning.
Co-Creating Science Learning Across New Hampshire: PLACE Science Network Meeting
On a cold February morning in Concord, science educators gathered to strengthen three-dimensional science learning. From northern lights observations to the “Bone Mystery” investigation, see how PLACE is accelerating high-quality science instruction across the state.
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Making Math Spicy
Is your math class spicy enough? Discover how New Hampshire educators in the PLACE program are using “thin slicing” and the chili pepper metaphor to transform student-centered math instruction into an engaging, collaborative experience that builds student persistence.
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ELA PLACE — A PLC in Action
What happens when professional learning is led by teachers, for teachers? PLACE: a statewide community reimagining student engagement. Go inside the ELA PLACE network to see how educators are co-creating equitable, performance-based assessments through radical collaboration.
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Reflections On the Outside: How Being a Teacher Prepared Me For My Next Chapter
Leaving the classroom is never just a career move—it’s an identity shift. In this reflective piece, the author shares what it meant to step away from daily lesson plans and into a system-level role at the New Hampshire Learning Initiative. Drawing on years of classroom experience, the blog explores how teaching shaped not only instructional practice, but also ways of listening, problem-solving, and understanding success. While the work has shifted from one classroom to many, the core beliefs remain the same: students thrive when they feel known, have voice and agency, and experience learning that feels real. This post reflects on what is missed, what is not, and how becoming a bridge between classrooms and systems has strengthened the author’s ability to advocate for meaningful, student-centered change—grounded in empathy, credibility, and urgency.
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5 tips for high-impact, student-centered math professional learning
Curriculum alone cannot close math gaps. Instruction closes gaps. And instruction improves when teachers have access to high-quality, research-based professional learning grounded in how students actually learn mathematics.
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Rethinking Grading Part 2: When the Gradebook Drives the Bus
Choosing a Reporting System That Actually Supports Competency-Based Learning In a lot of districts that say they’re “doing competency-based learning,” you can see two very different realities: Too often, districts […]
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Student Agency Part 2: Trusting Students in the Kitchen
My understanding of student agency first took root during my graduate teaching program at Simmons University. In a curriculum design seminar, a group of us were discussing the role of […]
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Rethinking Grading, Part 1: When Feedback Leads, Learning Follows
Designing Grading Practices That Reflect Growth, Development, and Classroom Reality Few topics in K–12 education spark as much debate—and confusion—as grading practices. School systems and structures often demand that grading […]
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Reimagining Professional Development: Putting Educators at the Center of Change
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.
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