NENPP i3 project

The New England Network for Personalization and Performance (NETWORK), created by the Plymouth, MA School District and the Center for Secondary School Redesign, Inc., (CSSR) has successfully competed for a $5,000,000.00 grant through the extremely competitive Investing in Innovation (i3) Program of the USDOE. In fact, there were 1324 applicants in the development category and only 30 will be receiving funding. In addition to Plymouth and CSSR, project partners include the New York Performance Standards Consortium (Consortium) and the UCLA School Management Program. The project will also benefit from generous matching funds from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Rural Schools and Community Trust.

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The success of this application is a result of the innovative approaches to high school learning that the Plymouth School District has been implementing over the past several years.

The member districts participating in the NETWORK are representative of four New England states. The NETWORK represents a truly innovative approach to preparing and motivating students for postsecondary success.

We envision a redesign high school. A place where learning can happen anytime, anyplace; a place where students demonstrate their learning through complex, rigorous performance assessments. Our redesigned high school is a place where teachers function more as facilitators and coaches of learning than as lecturers and dispensers of knowledge. Our hypothesis for this work is: Students who participate in inquiry-based learning experiences tied to performance assessments will experience success in school and be better prepared for college and/or career experiences.

The NETWORK will allow schools to support each other in the development of personalized learning environments that include performance assessments as a vehicle of demonstrating mastery of course competencies.

This model of schools is one where learning and assessment is inquiry based and personalized for each student but includes measures of evidence of achievement that is both reliable and valid. This kind of school exists in a number of small schools around the country, but has been very well refined by a consortium of NY schools, the NY Performance Standards Consortium. Consortium schools provide personalized learning environments where learning is guided by collaborative professional communities that engage in inquiry based teaching and learning.

The Consortium includes 33 high schools in NY State, 30 of which are located in NY City and have documented strong evidence of success for all students. In Consortium schools, only 15% of entering ninth graders are reading at grade level compared to the NY City average of 30%. And, Consortium students are more likely to be from poverty or have special needs. But, Consortium school students are much more likely to graduate, go directly into college and persist at least into their sophomore years than are students from the city as a whole. With the support of the Consortium and CSSR, this network of New England schools will be able to create systematic change this is based on an in depth performance of mastery as part of a multiple measure assessment system.

NETWORK Schools:

- Plymouth North High School, Plymouth, MA
- Plymouth South High School, Plymouth, MA
- Mt. Abraham Union Middle High School, Bristol, VT
- Nashua North High School, Nashua, NH
- Nashua South High School, Nashua, NH
- Pittsfield Middle High School, Pittsfield, NH

- Nute Middle High School, Nute, NH
- Laconia High School, Laconia, NH
- Manchester West High School, Manchester, NH
- Raymond High School, Raymond, NH
- Newfound High School, Bristol, NH
- Kearsarge High School, New London, NH
- Noble High School, North Berwick, ME

Watch a Video About The NETWORK