Senior Program Associate Nick Hardy provides technical assistance and professional development in data analysis and dialogue, accountability and assessment, and facilitation to state departments of education, districts, and schools primarily in the Northeast.

A member of Learning Innovations (LI) at WestEd, Hardy works closely with LI's partner, the New England Comprehensive Center (NECC) to support Departments of Education articulate, organize, and improve their state systems of support for low-performing schools and districts. In 2007 and 2008, with Hardy's assistance, NECC sponsored the first regional symposium on support for low-performing schools, attended by state leaders throughout New England.

Hardy also has worked with NECC to help schools in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire increase their student test scores. In 2007, he helped NECC design and host a four-day literacy and leadership institute that engaged more than 20 school district teams in New Hampshire.

He also works in both New England and California in providing Teach for Success (T4S) services to school districts. T4S is a focused, collaborative, research-based framework and process that improves classroom instruction, K-12, and student achievement. Hardy has organized classroom walk-through teams, provided related professional development on using T4S data, and trained administrators and teacher teams on how to do their own walk-throughs.

Hardy works with several school districts in New Hampshire to define their own set of essential standards, develop a common understanding of the critical components of those standards, and then develop frequent formative assessments for classroom teachers to use as they adjust their instruction. Several districts have also instituted a daily time block to provide interventions for all students based on these formative assessments.

Prior to joining WestEd in 2002, Hardy served more than 25 years as an elementary school principal and a teacher of middle school language arts. He also served as the Executive Director of the New Hampshire affiliate of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Under his direction, ASCD dramatically increased its membership and influence in the state of New Hampshire. As a result of his ASCD accomplishments, Hardy was presented with a New Hampshire Excellence in Education Award in 2004.

He received a BA in English literature from Boston University, an MA in teaching from the University of New Hampshire, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in educational administration from Northeastern University.