Everyday and across the United States, NNER members operate on four fundamental beliefs.
- We are all responsible for the improving the realities of our schools, universities, and communities.
- We believe that all students, regardless of race, poverty, geography, or any other circumstance, deserve equal access to high quality learning and enriching life experiences.
- We believe deep, enduring teaching and learning occurs can truly only occur when students are both loved and challenged.
- By embracing our 1) shared responsibility to schools, 2) working toward equal access to high quality learning for all students, and 3) teaching from a place that loves and challenges students, we find what inspires us most– 4) educating and preparing students to fully engage as considerate and critical citizens who know their value and capacity to make a profound impact in this world.
Our daily work is most often immeasurable. We celebrate settings across the nation who are pioneers in this work while also commending schools, universities, and community partners who are in their earliest stages. For every celebration, we also find a challenge. Our current educational climate is urgent, but this is not unlike previous decades. Since our origin in 1987, we have called attention toward practices and policies that dehumanize and demean students while advocating and working on the ground in classrooms and communities toward our fundamental beliefs.
We are teachers, faculty members, principals, social workers, superintendents, district administrators, deans, artists, non-profit leaders, law enforcement officers, and much more. We work in higher education, Pre-K-12 schools and districts, community organizations, governmental organizations, and businesses.
If you are inspired by this work, we invite you to join us.