About the Consortium

Encompassing Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, the New England Secondary School Consortium is a pioneering educational partnership committed to fostering forward-thinking innovations in the design and delivery of secondary education across the New England region. The Consortium's bold goal is to ensure that by 2016 every public high school student in the five partner states will receive an education that will prepare them for college, career, and civic responsibility in the interconnected global community of the 21st century.

Recognizing that national borders no longer define the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that students need for success, the Consortium will support the development of a new generation of high-performing, internationally competitive schools that will redefine the traditional concept of the American high school to better mirror the lives and learning needs of today's students.

These transformed schools will no longer be limited by building design, geography, or educational convention, but will be flexible, borderless, multidimensional community learning centers that blend secondary and postsecondary educational experiences. Students will conduct research in their communities, acquire real-world skills through challenging internships, take online and on-campus college courses, use powerful new technologies to access the world, and engage in other innovative learning opportunities both inside and outside the classroom.

The Consortium is funded by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the largest philanthropy in New England focused exclusively on education, and coordinated by Great Schools Partnership, a nonprofit educational-support organization in Portland, Maine. The Nellie Mae Education Foundation has committed $1 million to support the initial 18 months of the Consortium's work, which includes a $500,000 partnership grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Learn More

• NESSC Press Release [12.15.08]
• NESSC Organizational Chart [12.02.09]
• Vision + Mission [12.02.09]
• Declaration of Commitment [12.02.09]
• NEJHE Article on the NESSC [12.02.09]

Partners

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©2010 New England Secondary School Consortium

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