New Hampshire Partners in Education

New Hampshire Partners in Education (NHPIE), the statewide resource for development of effective community involvement in education, had its 30^th anniversary in 1998.

In 1998, NHPIE expanded its network of educational volunteers to include 588 school coordinators and 503 partnership directors. According to annual reports filed by Blue Ribbon applicants, 50,000+ school volunteers contributed more than 1.2 million hours of direct service to their community schools. When attributed with a dollar amount, this represents more than $14,400,000 provided to New Hampshire schools at no cost to the taxpayer.

Sixty-eight thousand New Hampshire students have received the benefits of community collaborations in this academic year. Partnerships continue to be examples of systemic, multi-layer programs, which yield educational reform and systemic improvement for the students of those communities. Reported results of these mutually beneficial collaborations include reduction in vandalism, increase in literacy scores, improved attendance, 50% increased college attendance, increased communication between parents and teachers and increased student volunteerism.

In its role as a clearinghouse, NHPIE is able to replicate successful models of partnership programs across the state. The demand for services and programs relating to school volunteer and partnership programs increased 45% over last year's requests in the state. As a result of information gathered from the 50,000 school volunteers statewide, NHPIE cataloged 230 partnership programs. These models are in high demand and serve as a library for communities seeking examples of partnership programs.

Besides increasing the quantity of school volunteers, NHPIE serves as a resource for the professional training of these individuals by providing workshops, conferences, consultation services and materials. NHPIE has received full funding this year from the Walker Foundation to facilitate a comprehensive school-based mentoring program for business; a task not yet undertaken by any other state affiliate in the nation.