Baxter Academy for Technology and Science is a public charter school in downtown Portland, Maine, that has been open since September 2013.

Baxter Academy is located in Maine’s largest and most diverse city and serves 415 students from 66 Maine towns, many rural. Baxter Academy’s academic program is real-world, technology-rich, student-centered, and project-based. These touchstones ground the learning community as it strives to use the dynamic tension inherent in its model to do stronger work: Baxter must, according to its charter contract, provide an excellent, rigorous STEM education, and as a public charter school, it must do the great social good of meeting the needs of any student who enrolls.

At Baxter, teachers demonstrate a deep commitment to their students and guide all students in an individualized, collaborative, and interdisciplinary community. They set an expectation that students interact with one another with mutual respect. The teachers have life experiences that include everything from long-distance sailing to mountain climbing to teaching in international schools to engineering robots to starting tech businesses. One Baxter teacher was appointed by the governor to serve on the state’s STEM council. Another teacher serves on the Maine Computer Science Task Force, which is tasked with integrating computer science into the state’s graduation requirements. All Baxter teachers support students in mastering 21st-century skills such as problem-solving, collaboration, and communication.