Great Schools

2nd NH Summit on Digital Equity, November 3

There’s still time to register for the 2nd NH Summit on Digital Equity, held on Friday. November 3, from 8:25 a.m. to 2:45 pm at New England College. The National Collaborative for Digital Equity at New England College cordially invites you to join them for the nation’s second statewide summit on digital equity.  At the first summit last February, they helped nearly a dozen NH communities explore whether and how best to form school/community partnerships to close the digital divide at home for low income learners of all ages. Since then, great progress has been made: More than a dozen […]

Helping Children Cope With Traumatic Events

As we wake up to this morning’s tragic news and look for resources, NEA wanted to share links we have up in nea.org/safeschools. NEA Today has also provided this story and links: Mass Shooting in Las Vegas: How to Talk to Students The page hasn’t been rebuilt or updated since Charlottesville so the links that most relevant are found here: http://www.nea.org/home/71339.htm HELPING CHILDREN COPE WITH TRAUMATIC EVENTS NEA Healthy Futures School Crisis Guide Knowing what to do in a crisis can be the difference between stability and upheaval. This step-by-step resource created by educators for educators can make it easier for […]

NH Department of Education Selects New Vendor for Statewide Testing

The state of Department of Education has entered into a contract with the American Institute for Research, AIR, for a new standardized test for New Hampshire. NEA-NH continues too look into the impact this change will have on our students and educators and will post updates as we learn more about the new tests. For now, this is what what have learned: The AIR test is based upon the Common Core Standards so it will be testing the same knowledge as the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) test. The specifications for the test items are different than the SBAC assessment […]

My Turn: Past Decade Has Seen Big Changes in Education

By TOM RAFFIO For the Monitor Wednesday, May 10, 2017 I’m sorry to leave the State Board of Education but am pleased with what we’ve accomplished over my 10-year term, the last five as chairman. I’m most proud of the working relationship we built between the board and the department and, most importantly, with parents, educators, and businesses throughout the state. One of the board’s key priorities since I came on 10 years ago has been to help our schools move toward personalized competency education. This is a big change for our whole school system. It’s a new way of […]

Full Day Kindergarten is a Sound Educational Investment

An open letter to the House Finance Committee Dear Chairman Kurk and Members of the House Finance Committee, After more than 25 years of trying, New Hampshire is finally poised to fully fund those communities that have full day kindergarten. Kindergarten is a magical time in a child’s life. During kindergarten, children learn to get along with each other, they discover the joy and challenge of reading and writing, and they learn what it means to be in school. We know that kindergarten is a key “bridge year” for children—a year for children to move from unstructured play and early […]

LOCKDOWN: The Assault on Public Education Has Begun

The assault on public education and collective bargaining has begun. With the loss of the Governor’s office last November, and the recent ratification of Betsy Devos as US Secretary of Education, the results could be devastating for New Hampshire public school students and educators. Ignoring the voices of over a million Americans, the Senate needed the Vice-president to cast the deciding vote, to approve DeVos, marking the first time in history such a move was required to confirm a cabinet post. With no experience as an educator or elected official, and despite a decades-long record of undermining public schools by […]