Since 1981, Northeast Foundation for Children, Inc. (NEFC) has grown from a small laboratory school and consulting group to the nationally recognized developer of the Responsive Classroom® approach to teaching. Here are some milestones in NEFC’s journey from shoestring operation to nationwide organization.

1981
January—Six public school teachers meet to discuss an idea that would become Northeast Foundation for Children.
August—NEFC opens its doors with 40 students in its lab school, Greenfield Center School, in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

1985—NEFC publishes its first book, A Notebook for Teachers, about child development with a focus on five-, six-, and seven-year-olds.

1986—The first NEFC summer week-long institute is offered (in Augusta, Maine).

1989—The first issue of NEFC’s newsletter is published and mailed to 9,000 educators.

1990—NEFC secures its first major consulting contract, working with public school teachers in Washington, D.C. Soon after, the term “Responsive Classroom” is coined to describe the teaching approach that NEFC had developed and is sharing with elementary educators.

1991—Teaching Children to Care by Ruth Sidney Charney is published. The book, now in its second edition, has since influenced the classroom management practice of thousands of teachers.

1994—Yardsticks: Children in the Classroom Ages 4-14 by Chip Wood is published. This reference on child development and its classroom implications has since sold over 150,000 copies. An updated third edition was released in 2007.

1997—Origins, a nonprofit educational organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota, becomes a licensee of NEFC and begins offering Responsive Classroom professional development services in the Midwest.

1999—The Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete is published, providing teachers across the country with an in-depth resource for using Morning Meeting to launch each school day. The development of this book and others in the “Strategies for Teachers” series was supported by the Shinnyo-En Foundation.

2000—The First Six Weeks of School by Paula Denton and Roxann Kriete is published. Winner of an Independent Publisher award, the book has helped countless teachers structure the beginning weeks of school in ways that lay a foundation for productive learning all year long. NEFC continues to publish at least one major book for elementary educators each subsequent year.

2001
With funding from the DuBarry Foundation, researchers from the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, launch the Social and Academic Learning Study (SALS), a three-year quasi-experimental, longitudinal study on the effectiveness of the Responsive Classroom approach.

Greenfield Center School becomes an independent nonprofit entity.

2003—The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) identifies Responsive Classroom as an exemplary social and emotional learning program in Safe and Sound: An Education Leader's Guide to Evidence-Based Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Programs.

2004—NEFC moves its offices to new, expanded headquarters in Turners Falls, Massachusetts.

2006
University of Virginia researchers release findings from their “Social and Academic Learning Study” (SALS). Key findings associate Responsive Classroom practices with higher math and reading scores, improved student social skills, more high-quality instruction, and a greater sense of teacher self-efficacy. 

The first Responsive Classroom Schools Conference brings school leaders together at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

NEFC purchases and renovates a building near its offices in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. This new workshop and training space is named the Responsive Classroom Center and dedicated to NEFC founders Ruth Sidney Charney, Marlynn K. Clayton, Jay Lord, and Chip Wood.

2007
Sara Rimm-Kaufman, principal investigator for the SALS study, receives the Joseph E. Zins Purpose Award for early-career professionals who are contributing substantially to the field of social and emotional learning in schools. The honor was bestowed by the Collaborative for Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), based at the University of Chicago.

The Power of Our Words: Teacher Language That Helps Children Learn by Paula Denton is published and rapidly becomes one of NEFC's bestselling titles.

2008
Dr. Sara Rimm-Kaufman and colleagues at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, Center for the Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, begin work in 24 schools for the Responsive Classroom Efficacy Study (RCES). This multi-year, $2.9 million study will look at Responsive Classroom practices, with a special emphasis on math teaching and learning. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Education. To learn more, read the Curry School’s press release or visit Dr. Rimm-Kaufman’s website.

The number of people taking NEFC- and Origins-sponsored workshops and institutes has climbed to 6,000 per year in 50 locations. In addition, NEFC and Origins together provide over 400 days of on-site consulting per year to schools and districts nationwide.

2009
NEFC publishes the Morning Meeting Professional Development Kit and the Teacher Language Professional Development Kit, and the Morning Meeting Professional Development Kit wins the AEP's Distinguished Achievement and Golden Lamp awards. These reusable multimedia kits contain everything a school needs to run high-quality school-based study groups focused on a single Responsive Classroom practice.

2010
The free Responsive Classroom Newsletter is mailed to about 80,000 subscribers quarterly.

35,000 visitors come to the Responsive Classroom website each month.

NEFC sells over 120,000 copies of its books and other publications each year. The Morning Meeting Book, The First Six Weeks of School, Teaching Children to Care, and Yardsticks have each sold over 100,000 total copies.

Caltha Crowe's second book, Sammy and His Behavior Problems: Stories and Strategies from a Teacher's Year, is published in April. The audiobook version comes out in May.