NECC Staffer Describes New Hampshire Work in New Handbook

"Working Sma-tah, Not Ha-dah in New Hampshire" highlights the New England Comprehensive Center's work with the New Hampshire Department of Education (NHDOE) to strengthen its statewide system of support.

Written by Adam Tanney, a Research Associate at RMC Research Corporation and NECC staff member, the story appears as a chapter in the Center on Innovation and Improvement's Handbook for Statewide Systems of Support.

In March 2006, a host of industrious state activities related to a statewide system of support took place in New Hampshire. Yet despite its efforts, NHDOE struggled to articulate a theory of action behind its efforts and a strategy that connected its many individual activities. With a growing cadre of schools identified in need of improvement, influxes of English language learners, and national pressures on state education agencies to add support to their monitoring role, NHDOE recognized the need to coordinate its support.

This case study describes how, over the course of 18 months, four themes guided NECC's work with NHDOE to strengthen its statewide system of support: (1) using research-based models to organize thought and action, (2) thinking systemically about all elements to create coherence and improve efficiency of action, (3) enhancing communication practices, and (4) leveraging institutional authority to generate necessary resources.