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“Freshman Year for Free” Press Announcement

MODERN STATES ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR FRESHMAN YEAR FOR FREE

COLLABORATES WITH EDX TO FUND DEVELOPMENT OF MORE THAN 20 FREE ONLINE COURSES OVER THE NEXT YEAR

New York, NY and Cambridge, MA — January 15, 2015 — Today the non-profit Modern States Education Alliance announced a major new initiative — “Freshman Year for Free” — to help more students enter or return to the traditional college system and to make quality education more accessible. Modern States will collaborate with edX, the non-profit MOOC provider, to work with its university partners to create these courses over the coming months.

Modern States has selected edX because of the high quality of its course offerings on edx.org, developed by the best universities in the world. Through a generous gift from the family of Steven Klinsky, founder of Modern States, edX will add to its current suite of AP* and introductory college-level courses currently offered on its platform. These additional courses will ensure that every major subject covered by a College Board Advanced Placement* or CLEP* exam will be offered on edX.org. Students completing the courses will have an opportunity to pass exams and gain credit from traditional colleges and universities. All courses are planned to launch and be open for registration on edX.org within the next 18 months. 

“No one should be shut out of education after high school because of tuition cost or lack of access,” said Steven Klinsky, Modern States’ founder and chairman. “Modern States’ goal is to create at least one universally available and tuition free path toward high quality education for anyone who seeks it. We thank edX for its partnership with Modern States in this goal.”

“On behalf of edX and our university partners, I want to extend my sincerest thanks to Steven Klinsky for his generous gift, which will help fund the creation of these additional courses,” said Anant Agarwal, edX CEO. “Central to the edX mission is the idea that education should be a basic human right, and we are pleased to work with Modern States as they seek to fulfill their vision of accessible education for every student around the world.”

These courses will cover important freshman college subjects, ranging from math, science and history courses, to economic, anthropology, philosophy, foreign languages, and English.

Each course will be developed by edX university partners, and will include quizzes, tests, assessments, online discussion groups and other features. Texts and materials will also be provided to students free of charge, online. Modern States intends to add tutoring, counseling, mentoring and college guidance to its portal over time, and to continuously update and expand the course offerings.

About Modern States

Modern States Education Alliance is a non-profit whose goal is to create a path to a tuition-free, high-quality and universally-accessible college education for any motivated students who seek one. 

Contact: David Vise, [email protected]

About edX

EdX is a nonprofit, open source enterprise offering online courses from member institutions, including both leading global universities and a diverse group of prominent organizations around the world. Founded by Harvard and MIT, edX is focused on transforming online and on-campus learning through groundbreaking methodologies, game-like experiences and cutting-edge research on an open source platform. Based in Cambridge, MA, edX is focused on people, not profit.

Contact: Nancy Moss, [email protected]

*Advanced Placement, AP and CLEP are registered trademarks of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, these offerings.

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