Mass
Networks Education Partnership, Inc.
Organizational Capabilities
Founded in 1996, Mass Networks is an independent, tax-exempt nonprofit funded by federal and state grants and contracts, corporate donations, district contracts, and event fees. We are inclusive and non-partisan. Our board includes top business and union leaders as well as educators and government officials. Senator Kennedy and Governor Cellucci serve as our Honorary Co-chairs.
MNEP works with all non-profit K-12 Massachusetts educational institutions. The activities we sponsor are carefully structured so that all schools can participate no matter what their level of preparedness. We complement rather than compete with existing professional development and local technology planning efforts. Without losing our independence, we align and integrate ourselves with the Massachusetts Department of Education’s technology-related efforts to make education reform a success.
We focus on both policy and implementation, playing a catalytic role to mobilize people and resources for wide-scale activity beyond our own staff and budget. We are not interested in the creation of unique models that are impossible to take to scale.
We are, by design, very small and always looking for opportunities for collaboration and partnership with others. We work to ensure that all our projects support each other, and to maximize the synergy and leverage among them. Our success is partially based on our belief that technology is a tool – not a silver bullet – and because our programs aim to empower people to deal with immediate problems while opening the path to more visionary changes.
MNEP provides strategic input to technology-facilitated efforts aimed at creating the conditions that lead to improved student learning outcomes.
We are active in the areas of:
Our goal is to make Massachusetts a world leader in establishing innovative modes of education through the integration of information and communication technologies, with particular emphasis on the K-12 education community; thereby making this state a model for national and international efforts to improved learning outcomes for all students, lay a foundation for broadly beneficial economic growth, and increase the opportunities for all people to be active citizens in a democratic society.
(underlined projects are MNEP-led; in others, MNEP was co-leader.)
Infrastructure and Operations: Create a technology-rich environment available to all educators and learners.
Netday: Three state-wide campaigns to mobilize community, business, and labor volunteers to help jump-start the wiring of school buildings; nearly 2/3 of state’s school district’s participated in 1996/97.
Mass Ed. Net: $25/yr Internet dial-up accounts available to all Massachusetts K-12 educators; currently has over 25,000 subscribers, about 25% of the workforce; started service in 1998.
Mass Community Network: High-bandwidth, low-cost intranet and ISP service available to every public school, library, municipality, and state agency; started service in 2000.
E-Rate Training & Advocacy: Provided workshops, telephone support, and follow-up advocacy for nearly every school district in Massachusetts during 1997/98.
Staffing Roundtables: Developed a model for adequate staffing of district and school technology and technology-integration programs, 1997/98.
Schools On Line: Collaborated with a California foundation in 1998/99 to give away computers to 45 public and private schools that lacked Internet access in their instructional areas.
School Construction Conferences: A series of events to help guide districts through their school construction projects while creating technology-enriched learning environments.
Students as Technology Leaders (SaTL): Promote the creation of local programs to provide technology training to students in an academic context so they can help maintain the school’s infrastructure, provide community service, and develop marketable skills.
Enriching the Learning Environment: Lead efforts using technology to achieve education goals in curriculum revitalization, professional development, and strategic planning.
Curriculum Library Alignment and Sharing Project (CLASP): A technology-facilitated process of curriculum development within the context of state Curriculum Frameworks and education reform; started in 1997, over 175 districts and several Schools of Education have participated in CLASP’s standards-based professional development; other states are beginning to inquire about adapting CLASP.
Technology and Curriculum Integration Leadership Program (TCI-LP): A strategic planning program to support district leadership teams successfully plan and implement technology-facilitated activities to achieve their district's education priorities. Forty-four districts have participated in the first two full years of the program, 1998 - 2000.
Virtual Education Space: A Ma.DoE-funded program, partially based on CLASP, to provide on-line tools to educators and other stakeholders to support classroom-based learning.
Student/Teacher Technology Competency Expectations: Helping districts deal with key issues relating to what they want students and staff to know, how they want those skills to be learned, and how they intend to assess mastery.
Policy and Public Engagement: Involve decision-makers, parents, and other stakeholders in efforts to encourage technology infusion in the education process.
Project MEET: Design and implement the "policy" component of this federally-funded program developing and disseminating effective methods of technology-related professional development, started in 1998 with 16 districts.
Consortium for School Networking (CoSN): Serve on the national board to learn from and coordinate with other states’ initiatives.
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