Our Story
In 1996, the Maine Department of Education convened a special committee of experienced educators and other experts on high school reform. The Commission on Secondary Education, as the task force came to be called, was charged with identifying strengths and weaknesses in Maine's secondary schools and charting a new course for increasing the aspirations and achievement of all youth. Following on the heels of the state's newly implemented learning standards, the State of Maine Learning Results, this new direction for high schools was to become part of a larger plan to promote sustainable economic prosperity for all citizens, a goal that has eluded Maine throughout much of its history. After articulating its bold mission—the citizens of Maine will be among the best-educated people in the world—the Commission went to work.
The goal was to develop a document that would stimulate serious conversations about secondary education across the state. After eliciting the best thinking from educators and researchers in Maine and around the nation, the Commission went directly to the students who had experienced first hand what Maine’s schools had to offer. The Maine Department of Education held three student summits across the state, and nearly 800 students voiced their feelings and opinions about their high school experience. The richness of this student input is clearly evident in the Commission's seminal report, Promising Futures: A Call to Improve Learning for Maine’s Secondary Students.
Focused on real schools and real students, Promising Futures did not read like a typical commission report. The Commission had created a forward-thinking blueprint guided by a set of core principles and practices that were common to high-performing high schools around the world. This "home-grown" document was both visionary and practical without being rigid or prescriptive, and it raised awareness among educators, parents, citizens, and policy makers about the urgent need to redesign high schools for the 21st century. In 1997, Promising Futures was published and distributed throughout the state, and a new era for Maine high schools began. The report won national recognition and eventually caught the attention of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In September 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $10 million grant to support a statewide implementation of recommendations from Promising Futures. The grant launched the Great Maine Schools Project, an ambitious school-redesign initiative that worked for five years to create academically equitable, rigorous, and personalized high schools that could prepare every student for success in college, work, and citizenship. During this time, a cadre of seasoned educators and school coaches from the Southern Maine Partnership at the University of Southern Maine were instrumental in guiding the Project's high school redesign efforts. Bringing more than two decades of experience in school design and teacher development, as well as a long history of successful collaboration with the state's institutions of higher education, the Southern Maine Partnership helped turn a targeted grant program into a growing statewide movement.
Formally incorporated on July 1, 2007, the Great Schools Partnership is composed of former staff members from the Great Maine Schools Project and the Southern Maine Partnership. As a nonprofit supporting organization of the Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute, the Great Schools Partnership carries on the work that began with the publication of Promising Futures more than a decade ago.
The goal was to develop a document that would stimulate serious conversations about secondary education across the state. After eliciting the best thinking from educators and researchers in Maine and around the nation, the Commission went directly to the students who had experienced first hand what Maine’s schools had to offer. The Maine Department of Education held three student summits across the state, and nearly 800 students voiced their feelings and opinions about their high school experience. The richness of this student input is clearly evident in the Commission's seminal report, Promising Futures: A Call to Improve Learning for Maine’s Secondary Students.
Focused on real schools and real students, Promising Futures did not read like a typical commission report. The Commission had created a forward-thinking blueprint guided by a set of core principles and practices that were common to high-performing high schools around the world. This "home-grown" document was both visionary and practical without being rigid or prescriptive, and it raised awareness among educators, parents, citizens, and policy makers about the urgent need to redesign high schools for the 21st century. In 1997, Promising Futures was published and distributed throughout the state, and a new era for Maine high schools began. The report won national recognition and eventually caught the attention of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In September 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a $10 million grant to support a statewide implementation of recommendations from Promising Futures. The grant launched the Great Maine Schools Project, an ambitious school-redesign initiative that worked for five years to create academically equitable, rigorous, and personalized high schools that could prepare every student for success in college, work, and citizenship. During this time, a cadre of seasoned educators and school coaches from the Southern Maine Partnership at the University of Southern Maine were instrumental in guiding the Project's high school redesign efforts. Bringing more than two decades of experience in school design and teacher development, as well as a long history of successful collaboration with the state's institutions of higher education, the Southern Maine Partnership helped turn a targeted grant program into a growing statewide movement.
Formally incorporated on July 1, 2007, the Great Schools Partnership is composed of former staff members from the Great Maine Schools Project and the Southern Maine Partnership. As a nonprofit supporting organization of the Senator George J. Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute, the Great Schools Partnership carries on the work that began with the publication of Promising Futures more than a decade ago.