How Maret Helped Build, and Now Helps Run, a Consortium of 28 Selective Schools Nationwide.
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In This Guide
Most K-12 schools cap a motivated student’s options at whatever their own course catalog offers. Maret’s students aren’t limited that way. Through the Malone Schools Online Network, Maret’s Upper School students can take live seminar courses alongside peers from 27 other selective schools across the country, and Maret itself has played a lead role in the consortium since its founding.
Quick Answer for Busy Parents
The Malone Schools Online Network (MSON), founded in 2013, is a selective consortium of 28 independent schools nationwide, and Maret is the only member school in Washington, DC. MSON offers live, seminar-style courses in subjects ranging from advanced mathematics to Arabic and Ancient Greek, taught to small groups of motivated students across member schools in real time. Maret itself received the founding grant that helped launch the program and has played a lead academic and administrative role ever since.
A Consortium of 28, Led in Part by Maret
MSON began in 2012, when six heads of school envisioned a collaboration built on the expertise of Stanford Online High School to extend each member school’s curriculum for its most motivated students. After a pilot year, MSON formally launched in 2013 with 12 schools and 9 courses. Maret School, on the consortium’s behalf, received a founding grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation to support the program’s development, and has played the lead academic and administrative role among MSON’s three founding schools ever since, alongside Stanford Online High School and Hopkins School.
Today, MSON has grown to 28 schools nationally, and Maret remains the only Washington, DC member. Participating schools span the country, from boarding and day schools alike, each contributing students and, in some cases, teachers to the shared course catalog.
| MSON Fact | Detail |
| Founded | 2013 (piloted 2012-13) |
| Member Schools | 28 nationally; Maret is the only DC member |
| Class Size | Typically capped at 16 students per course |
| Weekly Workload | 6-8 hours per course, including class time |
| Sample Subjects | Advanced mathematics, economics, computer science, Arabic, Ancient Greek |
What an MSON Course Actually Looks Like
MSON courses meet in small, interactive, high-definition video seminars, typically capped at 16 students, combining live synchronous discussion with asynchronous coursework completed outside of class.
Course topics reach well beyond a typical high school catalog: recent offerings have covered advanced mathematics, comparative film studies, economics, computer science, ethics, and language study in Arabic and Ancient Greek.
Students should expect to spend six to eight hours per week on each MSON course, including class time, and most courses are NCAA-approved for student-athletes.
Why Maret Plays an Outsized Role
Unlike most participating schools, Maret isn’t just a course consumer within MSON. It’s one of three founding institutions, alongside Stanford Online High School (where the consortium’s technology infrastructure is based) and Hopkins School. That founding role means Maret families gain access to a program the school itself helped build and continues to help administer, rather than simply subscribing to a third-party service.
For a school of Maret’s size, roughly 320 students in the Upper School alone, that level of influence over a national academic consortium is genuinely unusual. It reflects an institutional commitment to expanding what a single small school can offer, rather than treating enrichment programs as an afterthought.
Why This Matters for Applicants
Families evaluating Maret specifically for academic breadth should treat MSON as a genuine differentiator, not a footnote. A motivated Upper School student interested in a subject Maret doesn’t teach in-house, whether that’s a less commonly taught language or a specialized STEM elective, has a real path to studying it without leaving the school entirely. That’s a meaningfully different value proposition than a school with a large but fixed course catalog and no outside consortium to draw on.
Evaluating Maret’s Academic Opportunities?
Cardinal Education helps families understand how distinctive academic programs like MSON actually function day to day.
Looking at Maret School through the lens of Asian American applicants? We’ve built a dedicated guide for that.
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