On July 7, 2011, the Education Commission of the States will honor the New England Secondary School Consortium as the recipient of the prestigious 2011 Frank Newman Award for State Innovation during its 2011 National Forum on Education Policy in Denver.

A recently announced Vermont Department of Education grant program will support high schools committed to developing sustainable models of innovation. Recipients of the grant will be inducted into the New England Secondary School Consortium's League of Innovative Schools.

Mark Kostin, Maine Liaison, testified today in support of LD 949 "An Act to Update Maine's High School Requirements", a bill sponsored by NESSC Council member and Maine Senator Justin Alfond. > Read Mark's testimony

The League of Innovative Schools is our new collaboration-driven regional support program for secondary schools. As members, participating schools will become part of a growing network of secondary institutions working to improve programs, exchange expertise, and create more student-centered learning opportunities.

The New England Secondary School Consortium is happy to announce the publication of Global Best Practices: An Internationally Benchmarked Self-Assessment Tool for Secondary Learning, a practical, action-oriented self-assessment tool for secondary schools. The tool grew out of a recognition that national borders no longer define the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind that students need for success, and that New England’s high schools may need assistance reviewing learning standards, organizational structures, leadership models, teaching strategies, professional development, and student outcomes in relation to research on high-performing educational systems and research-based practices. The tool offers schools a practical, step-by-step process they can follow to assess their relative performance in key areas and shape their school-improvement plans. Our hope is that Global Best Practices will become a first step toward defining, in detail, the characteristics of effective 21st century education and applying them to the creation of new models of teaching, learning, and leading in today’s high schools.

During the development of Global Best Practices, an abundance of research studies on effective secondary schooling, both in the United States and abroad, were consulted. To help educators find these resources, the Consortium has also published a companion research summary that we hope will serve to stimulate self-reflection and professional inquiry in secondary schools across New England.

The New England Secondary School Consortium recently released its High Leverage Policy Framework, a detailed exploration of education policy from rationale to development to implementation. Drawing from the fields of education policy, school redesign, organizational change, leadership development, and program evaluation, the tool provides policy makers and educators with a step-by-step framework they can use to identify and develop effective, high-impact policies in their states, districts, and schools. Created by a team of researchers at the University of Connecticut's Center for Education Policy Analysis, the Framework will help guide policy makers and educational leaders as they work to enact transformative change in New England's public schools.

Policy makers in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont unanimously passed joint resolutions of support for the New England Secondary School Consortium, a pioneering multistate partnership working to foster forward-thinking innovations in the design and delivery of secondary education across the region. The passage of formal joint resolutions in four different states during the same legislative session sends a powerful message of endorsement for the Consortium’s overarching goal: ensuring that every public high school student graduates prepared for success in the colleges, careers, and communities of the 21st century.