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Next STEP High
Next STEP High, nominated by Center on Reinventing Public Education and Educate Maine, is a middle/high school in Lewiston, Maine, that describes itself as a public district school serving learners from a primarily urban area.
Location Lewiston, Maine
Governance Public District School
Grades Middle, High
Students 170
Locale Urban
Director Philip Johnston
Demographics
Percentage of students*
29%
English Learners
81%
Free/Reduced Lunch
36%
Students with Disabilities
African American or Black 50%
American Indian/Alaska Native —
Asian —
Hawaiian or Pacific Islander —
Hispanic or Latino 5%
White 39%
2+ Races —
Why Next STEP High was nominated
Their intense focus on relationships along with TRUE community-integrated learning stands out compared to any other program I've witnessed. Students have been a part of co-designing the school from the start and learn/earn credits through real-world projects with local businesses and organizations. The curriculum is adaptive to students needs and the staff put relationships front and center to make sure students feel invested in, cared for, and motivated to succeed., This school exhibits strong partnership between a local youth-serving nonprofit and a public school to promote student voice and agency, mental health and SEL supports by employing community-based professional youth workers through the school district.
Student experience design
In all of our co-created partnerships, our vision of a graduate is centered on the following 6 core skill areas: Inter-personal skills (cultivating one's community), Intra-personal skills (cultivating the self, social-emotional competencies), Leadership skills (knowing when to raise your voice and when to let others raise theirs), Technical skills (academic and hard skills needed for jobs of the future), Novel experiences (that ignite the adolescent brain's tolerance for risk), and Navigating & Challenging Systems (teaching students how systems function & how to critique oppressive systems that do not serve them well). The learning environment allows students to develop in these areas in multiple ways. First, the student participate in daily circle activities where they can deepen their understanding of themselves and their community. Second, we use restorative practices to repair and minimize harm, allowing for student's to develop a myriad of personal skills through the process. Third, our students co-create curriculum at the beginning of each year with their teachers. This includes, but is not limited to, proposing topics, self-assessing their own work, developing their own projects and courses, and leading learning activities themselves. We also design our curricula to maximize credit-earning opportunities within a competency-based model, which helps students who are under-credited for their age can catch up and move forward. Finally, Next STEP staff constantly seeks to push students out into the Lewiston community to engage in real-world projects. In the past students have worked with the elderly, designed parks for the City, and developed, pitched, and started their own businesses, among many other projects.
Core Practices
| Core Practices | Length of Use |
|---|---|
|
Grading Policies Focus On Mastery |
5+ years
|
|
Project-based Learning |
5+ years
|
|
Restorative Practices |
5+ years
|
|
SEL Integration School-wide |
3-4 years
|
|
Trauma-informed Practices |
Less than a year
|
All Practices
Student Advisories
Assessments For Career Readiness
Assessments For Social-emotional Skills
Career Advising & Support
Co-leadership
Community And Workforce Partnerships
Family And Community Support Services
Competency/mastery-based Education
Culturally Responsive Practices
Disaggregated Data On Student Participation
Flexible Staffing & Alternative Teaching Roles
All Courses Designed For Inclusion
Individual Learner Profiles
Individual Learning Paths
Mental Health Services
1:1 Mentoring
Multi-tiered System Of Support (MTSS) In Academics
Multi-age Classrooms
Industry Networking
Performance Based Assessment
School-based Enterprises
Students Access Their Own Data
Student-led Goal Setting
Self-paced Learning
Students Develop Projects
Tutoring
Career Prep
key reasons for innovating
Address systemic inequities
Better support a specific population of students
Better support multilingual students
Better support students classified as English learners
Better support students experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness
Better support students in the foster care system
Better support students in the juvenile justice system
Better support students with disabilities
Better support students with interrupted formal education
Demonstrate what’s possible for other schools
Date Updated: 4/1/2026
*Canopy profile data is self-reported or sourced from NCES data, then verified by school leaders.