John Clements is Principal of Nipmuc Regional High School.  A graduate of Boston University, he began his career at Nipmuc 22 years ago as an English teacher. He spent seven years as an assistant principal and is currently in his ninth year as principal. Mr. Clements is passionate about evolving education to meet the needs of the modern world. He leads a talented team of educators that is focused on continuous improvement, including embedding opportunities to support student agency, deep inquiry, and real work that has relevance beyond the classroom.  Mr. Clements is the recipient of the 2017 Massachusetts Principal of the Year Award.

Mr. Clements is a proponent of the accreditation process as a way to promote a culture of continuous improvement in our schools. He has worked closely with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) including recently serving as the chairperson of NEASC’s committee to revise the standards for accreditation, leading the work to write the 2020 Standards for Accreditation for NEASC's 600+ member schools. He recently completed his sixth year and final term as a Commissioner for the NEASC, serving as one of 25 administrators across New England who establish standards and processes for school accreditation while guiding schools through the accreditation cycle. For the past 17 years he has chaired accreditation visiting teams, leading groups of educators in supporting other schools’ improvement efforts. He is the recipient of NEASC’s 2020 Jacob Ludes III Leadership Award.

Mr. Clements is a believer in the power of professional sharing and best practices as a source of professional growth and development. He is a founder of The Inspired Learning Project, a network of learners and leaders from across New England who share resources, practices, and professional support to enhance opportunities for modern learning in our schools. He also founded and moderated a weekly Twitter chat, #thinktankED, connecting educators from different school communities through social media. Along with Mrs. Moran, he co-created the Launching Modern Learning course in order to guide other educators in building schools that inspire.

He has shared his professional work and the achievements of Nipmuc Regional in a variety of venues. In February 2019, they represented the work of Nipmuc Regional at the Redesigning School for Student Success conference at High Tech High in San Diego. In 2018 Mr. Clements and Mrs. Moran traveled to the U.S. Department of Education as representatives of one of six schools across the nation to share strategies for reimagining the school day. They returned to Washington, D.C. in June to co-author whitepapers about the reimagining American education. Additional presentations include the 2018 EduCon Conference in Philadelphia, the National Science Teachers’ Association conference, the 2016 Leading Future Learning Conference, the 2015 Learn Launch conference, the 2014, 2015 & 2016 Massachusetts STEM Summits, the 2013 and 2015 NEASC Showcase of Model Schools, NEASC’s 2016 Annual Meeting, Plymouth State University's January Jamboree 2.0, WPI’s STEM Education Center, WPI’s AweSTEM event, the 2016 National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools (NCSSS) conference, a variety school districts across Massachusetts, and 12 presentations to Massachusetts administrators at the MSSAA Summer Institute from 2008-2019.

Mr. Clements recently completed a two-year term as President of the Blackstone Valley Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports innovative educational programming to assist students’ development of 21st century skills by connecting classrooms with industry.