BIDDEFORD — Biddeford Middle School’s Instructional Coach Mary Bellavance was named one of nine Distinguished Fellows in New England by Jobs for the Future’s Students at the Center initiative. The inaugural cohort of students is a diverse group of leaders in policy, practice and research from around New England, each selected for their vision, contributions and impact in the student-centered learning movement in the region. The nine Distinguished Fellows were selected from a highly competitive field of close to 40 applicants from across New England.

“As this is first time we’ve offered a fellowship, we were blown away by what we heard from so many of the candidates, any one of whom would have made a fabulous fellow,” said Rebecca E. Wolfe, senior director of Students at the Center. “I was so energized by the quality and passion of individuals working in every corner of New England to make student-centered learning a reality for all students. Leaders in this field are clearly hungry for this kind of professional development and connections to other innovators.”

Along with four research teams to be announced this fall and a group of prominent national advisors, the Students at the Center Distinguished Fellows comprise core members of the newly formed Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative. With thought leadership and anchor funding from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the Student- Centered Learning Research Collaborative is a bold new effort to investigate and evaluate what we know about student-centered learning within and beyond school walls, and then leverage that knowledge to affect meaningful change at scale.

As a practitioner fellow, Bellavance has proven expertise in achieving positive and equitable academic outcomes using student-centered learning approaches in multiple settings. She knows what it takes to implement and innovate practices that keep all students, particularly our most underserved, at the center of our teaching and learning activities. Bellavance’s career as an educator includes 11 years as a classroom teacher and 15 years in roles such as literacy specialist, literacy coach and instructional coach in southern Maine. She is the current President of Maine ASCD, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and strives to promote the organization’s mission to provide leadership in designing, innovating and customizing learning for Maine educators. Bellavance has published articles about personalized learning for Competency Works, ASCD Edge, and Educational Leadership, and she currently works with educators in Biddeford and surrounding school districts to help grow and sustain a student centered, proficiency-based teaching and learning system.

Bellavance has been a Reading First Instructor and Literacy Leaders’ Network facilitator for the Maine Department of Education. In addition, she has taught reading courses at the University of New England. Her professional writing was rejuvenated after she participated in the Southern Maine Writing Project Invitational Summer and Fall Institute. Bellavance has written about personalized learning for Competency Works, ASCD Edge and Educational Leadership. She has presented at many local and national conferences on topics such as educating in a digital landscape, habits of mind and creating a personalized learning climate for each child.

“These fellows are uniquely qualified to leverage research findings toward the creation of student-centered learning at scale,” said Eve Goldberg, Nellie Mae Education Foundation’s director of research. “They were chosen not only based on their impressive qualifications but their drive for moving this field forward across New England and beyond.”

The group of nine comprises professionals from across the research, practice and policy worlds. The research fellows are: Jennifer Fredricks, Connecticut College; Kei Kawashima- Ginsberg, Tufts University; and Dana L. Mitra, Pennsylvania State University. The practitioner fellows are: Arthur Baraf, Metropolitan Regional Career & Technical Center; Mary Bellavance, Biddeford Middle School; and Frank LaBanca, Westside Middle School Academy Magnet. The policy fellows are: Kim Carter, Q.E.D. Foundation; Lori Batista McEwen, Providence Public School Department; and Michelle L. Puhlick, Hartford Public Schools.