JFF is part of the Building Essential Skills Today (BEST) research-practice partnership. BEST is working to shift how students learn and demonstrate essentials skills like communication, collaboration, creativity, and self-direction (aka Work-Study Practices). The effort is doing this through a developmentally backed research framework, teacher professional development, new instruction in the classroom, and the use of a statewide performance assessment system rooted in competency-based education (PACE). JFF’s Research & Analytics Unit is leading the effort to build the evidence base that this works for ALL students.
BEST is also comprised of a dynamic group of teachers and leaders in four New Hampshire school districts (Laconia, Rochester, Sanborn, and Souhegan), the New Hampshire Learning Initiative (NHLI), the Center for Innovation in Education (CIE), the New Hampshire Department of Education, and KnowledgeWorks with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
