NAASh

Nizhny Novgorod Authors' Academic School (NAASh) — School No. 186 in Nizhny Novgorod, opened in 1995 at 84 Genkinoy Street in Sovetsky District ^[1][2][6]. Its full name is municipal autonomous general-education institution No. 186 "Authors' Academic School"; postal code 603024, nearest stop "Belinsky Street" ^[1][2]. The official website of School No. 186 in Nizhny Novgorod is s186nn.gosuslugi.ru, hosted on the state platform "Gosweb"; all mandatory information about the educational organization was migrated there from naash.ru. The former address naash.ru continues to operate in an unofficial capacity and hosts the school's chronicle, lists of graduates, and teacher profiles ^[3][4][5]. The school opened on September 9, 1995, having grown out of a "school of the future" project developed from 1993 onward by Nizhny Novgorod philosophers and educators; as the newspaper Pervoye Sentyabrya wrote of it, it was the first school to successfully assert the right to an authors' name ^[6][7][8]. The principal is Mikhail Vasilyevich Burov, Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation and Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod Region ^[9][10].

School No. 186 in Nizhny Novgorod: address, phone numbers, official website

The school occupies a building at 84 Genkinoy Street — a street named after the revolutionary Olga Genkina. The nearest stop is "Belinsky Street"; tram no. 2, buses no. 2, 19, 28, and 62, and about a dozen fixed-route minibuses (marshrutkas) serve the school ^[1].

The school's reception office can be reached at (831) 437-80-50 and 437-80-60, the administrator at 437-80-70, the accounting office at 437-80-20, and the fitness and wellness center at 437-80-30; fax: 437-80-10, email: s186_nn@mail.52gov.ru. The school is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 21:00 ^[1]. In the mid-2000s the school had different contact details: phone (8312) 18-49-85, fax (8312) 78-52-15, email s186@kis.ru, and website naash.nnov.ru ^[11].

The mandatory information required of educational organizations — charter, license, accreditation, teaching staff, scholarships, and vacancies — has been published since 2023 on the official website of School No. 186 of Nizhny Novgorod on the Gosweb platform at s186nn.gosuslugi.ru; on naash.ru, only a single redirect line remains of that section ^[4][5]. School No. 186 in Nizhny Novgorod thus has two web addresses: the official site at s186nn.gosuslugi.ru, and the site with news, chronicles, and the school archive at naash.ru ^[3][4][5].

According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the institution was registered on December 19, 1995; OGRN 1025203741518, INN 5262043508, KPP 526201001, primary activity — general secondary education (code 85.14). The sole founder is the municipal entity "city of Nizhny Novgorod"; Mikhail Burov has been listed as director since December 7, 2002 ^[2]. Formally it is an ordinary general-education school: it holds neither Lyceum nor gymnasium status, though it has for years ranked alongside lyceums in regional ratings ^[12][13].

Conception: 1993–1995

The school began not with a building, but with a text. From 1993, a team of authors — methodologist-theorists Lev Zelenov and Aleksandr Pishchik, and practitioner-educators Mikhail Burov and Sofya Lopatina — developed a project for a "school of the future": a concept, curricula, and a package of regulatory documents. The work concluded with the creation of the NAASh Doctrine, which was presented to the administrations of the district, city, and region ^[6].

The ideas drew from the Nizhny Novgorod philosophical club "Universum" and its view of the human being as a creature whose purpose must be discovered, not assigned. The school's concept was set out in the article "The School of the Future in the Present" in the journal Pedagogicheskoye Obozreniye (no. 2, Nizhny Novgorod, 1995) ^[6].

The development was carried out at School No. 151, and some of its teachers and pupils transferred from there to the new school. In 1995, local authorities gave permission to implement the NAASh project at the then-under-construction School No. 186 ^[6].

While construction was under way, amendments were made to the standard building design to give it a distinctive appearance: a library center, a conference hall, a cafeteria-style dining room, a lobby, rounded arches, and perimeter corridors ^[6]. These arches and the double-height information and resource center continue to set the school apart from standard buildings of the same series ^[15].

Opening on September 9, 1995

The grand opening took place on City Day — September 9, 1995. Remarks were delivered by Region Governor Boris Nemtsov, city Mayor Ivan Sklyarov, Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas Nikolai, and representatives of the city and district administration ^[7]. It is September 9, rather than the December date of the legal entity's registration, that is considered the school's birthday: "Ask any NAASh student, current or graduated, 'When is NAASh's birthday?' — and without a moment's hesitation they will answer: 'September 9'" ^[7].

Ivan Sklyarov was Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod in 1995 and became Governor only later, in 1997 — which is why the common claim that the school was built "with the support of Governor Sklyarov" confuses his two positions: at the opening he was the city's head, while the region was represented by Boris Nemtsov ^[7].

The school regards the federal law "On Education" in its 1995 edition — which gave schools latitude to develop their own curricula — as the triggering signal for the project ^[7].

Formation: 1995–1998

In the very year of its opening, the school became a regional experimental site for developing a new educational model — the "Author's School" (order of the Nizhny Novgorod Region Department of Education and Science, dated September 18, 1995, No. 320) — and a collective member of the All-Russian Academy of Human Studies, operating in Nizhny Novgorod ^[7].

Since 1996, development strategy has been set by the Author's Academic Council — 11 members, among them five doctors of science (L. A. Zelenov, V. T. Chichkin, Yu. G. Kuzmichev, T. M. Sorokina, I. Sh. Yakubova) and three candidates of science (A. M. Pishchik, L. P. Zagornaya, B. B. Yarmakhov); the chair is Aleksandr Pishchik, Candidate of Philosophical Sciences ^[7]. The Council established the methodological and theoretical foundation of the new school model, a package of regulatory documents, and the "NAASh Timeline" — its own periodization scheme that the school continues to use in describing its history to this day ^[7][16].

In 1996, at the Moscow festival "Author's School 'Eureka-96'," the school won the all-Russian competition in the category "Innovative School," presenting the project "Portrait of a NAASh Graduate," was awarded the status of "Innovative School," and joined the Association of Innovative Schools and Centers of Russia ^[7].

From 1997, the school has been a member of the UNESCO Associated Schools in the Russian Federation; that same year it placed third in the First All-Russian "Beautiful School" competition. From 1998, it has been a collective member of the Peter Academy of Sciences and Arts in Saint Petersburg ^[7].

It was also during this period that the projects the school considers its signature programs were born. "School Podium" (concept by V. V. Kiselev) is a festival of young fashion designers, drawing students from various Nizhny Novgorod schools. The "School Author's Song Theatre" (directed by T. I. Kapchits), with the participation of instructor Arnold Manukyan, produced original programs: "The Seasons" and "The Rainy Season" (1997), "Decembers" and "The Belated Summer" (1998), "Princess of Another Rain" (1999), "Turn Off the Light" (2000), "Songs Not for Children" (2001), "Let There Be Music" (2002), "With the Phantoms of the Opera, or A Teachers' Meeting Instead of a Show" (2003), "The Russian World" (2004), "A Little Country" (2005). A model for professional art exhibitions within the school also took shape (V. I. Fufachev, E. N. Kryukova) ^[7].

In its first three years, the school developed and tested some thirty models of academic, extracurricular, and infrastructural activity — ranging from probabilistic education in primary school (A. M. Lobok, I. Yu. Kalistratova, O. I. Katysheva) and a rating-based assessment system (E. E. Smirnova, E. G. Kochneva) to an original curriculum organized around eight disciplinary cycles (M. V. Burov, L. A. Zelenov, A. M. Pishchik) and a school-wide health regimen (T. L. Velikanova, I. Sh. Yakubova, S. D. Lopatina) ^[7].

Systemogenesis: 1998–2008

The school calls its second stage systemogenesis — the "adolescence" of its system. It is divided into two periods: before obtaining the status of a federal experimental site (1998–2001) and life under that status (2001–2008) ^[17].

From 1998 onward, a period of unrelenting unplanned inspections began: the staff's energies were consumed by defending the legality of the school's reforms, yet the inspection committees found no significant violations. The school candidly acknowledges that the models of specialized educational space envisioned for those years were, as a result, only partially realized ^[17]. Twenty years later, when the staff congratulated the principal on a state award, they recalled those years as "a path of exhausting struggle against the ossification of philistine thinking, a path of constant resistance to slander and distrust from many sides" ^[18].

In April 1999, the annual conference of the school's student academic society gave way to the School Academy of Sciences and Arts (SHANI) — an annual assembly at which students present their research projects. Those who have presented at the assemblies receive a Certificate of Creative Achievements upon graduation ^[17].

In September 2001 the school prepared the project "A Model of Career-Oriented Specialized Space for Upper School," and in March 2002, as the winner of a competition for cultural and educational initiatives, it was granted the status of a federal experimental site of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation (order of 4 March 2002, No. 691, line 40 of the annex). In November of the same year, at the Eureka-2002 festival, it confirmed that status in the category "Author's Experimental Schools" and became the region's sole applicant for a state contract under the Federal Program for the Development of Education ^[17].

In 2002 the school underwent licensing, certification, and accreditation, and its innovative status was recorded in the expert opinion and in the annex to the license ^[17]. The relevant documents are license A013403 (registration No. 237, dated 25 December 2002) and state accreditation certificate AA084988 (registration No. 3085, dated 20 February 2006) ^[11].

In October 2003 the Russian Forum was held in Nizhny Novgorod, and the forum's parent assembly took place at School No. 186 ^[17].

In 2003 the school launched several educational centers — a business center, a press center, a center for student initiatives, and a safety and survival center; participants in the business center won regional and all-Russian school-company fairs in Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, and Kazan for several consecutive years ^[17].

On 17 May 2004, at the General Assembly of the school during the Sixth SHANI Assembly, the NAASh Memorandum was adopted — a document enshrining the school's educational strategy and values. On the same occasion, SHANI "For Merit" lapel badges were awarded for the first time and the regulations for the "NAASh Book of Honor" were approved; both honors were timed to mark the school's tenth anniversary ^[17][19].

In the 2004/05 academic year, construction began on an annex — a physical fitness and wellness center — while the school also launched a Portfolio project and grade-free assessment without the five-point grading scale, which became the basis of the "Regulations on Interim Certification." The student newspaper NAAShestviye Zebr ("NAASh Invasion of Zebras") also made its debut ^[17].

On 10 February 2005, Andrey Fursenko, Minister of Education and Science of Russia, visited School No. 186 during a working trip to Nizhny Novgorod and attended a parent assembly for the tenth-grade classes; the staff presented him with their proposals for the "Priority Directions for the Development of the Educational System of the Russian Federation" ^[17].

In December 2004 and November 2005, at the Moscow festivals of the "Avtorskaya Shkola 'Evrika'" ("Author's School 'Eureka'"), the school was awarded the titles "School of the Year — 2004" and "School of the Year — 2005." In 2003, at the same festival, it received the "Quality Mark of Education" diploma, and in 2006 it reinforced its status as an author's, innovative, and experimental school with winner's diplomas and again received the "Quality Mark of Education" ^[17][11].

In 2006, 2007, and 2008, the school won three times in the competition of the priority national project "Education" among institutions implementing innovative educational programs, received three presidential grants of one million rubles each, and was included in the list of 64 leading schools of Russian education. During those same years, 19 of its teachers became winners of the national project: 13 received a grant from the President of Russia, and 6 received a grant from the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region ^[17]. Monetary awards for the results of 2008 were received by E. M. Yuferova, S. G. Ilchenko, G. I. Grebeneva, I. V. Domozhirova, T. A. Artemieva, S. E. Nikitina, S. E. Lomonosova, O. N. Gavrikova, and M. A. Maslova ^[11].

The school's website, created in 2005 by its own creative team, took third place in the all-Russian competition of websites of schools that serve as federal experimental sites ^[17].

An extremely important event of the forum was the Parents' Assembly. The participants, who had gathered from all regions of the country, held it at the author's experimental school No. 186 in Nizhny Novgorod, headed by the well-known principal Mikhail Burov. He and his colleagues created a unique system of civic school governance in which parents can genuinely not only articulate their expectations of the school, but also collaborate with the teaching staff in fulfilling them. In this way, for example, Burov developed a system of pre-specialized preparation and specialized instruction — well ahead of any ministerial directives and on a qualitatively different, far more thoroughly developed basis…

Three key ideas: specialization, career guidance, and social engagement

The main objective that the school formulated for itself in the course of its experimental work is stated as follows: a graduate must make a conscious professional choice, continue their education independently, and be competitive in modern society. This objective is expressed in three key ideas — specialization, career guidance, and social engagement — approved by the General Assembly of the school on May 17, 2004, and enshrined in the NAASh Memorandum ^[17][11]. The school's strategic ideal is described separately: to create a pedagogical environment in which every student is able to realize their abilities and find their own unique purpose in life ^[7].

The school's authorial character, by its own definition, is built on social partnership among all participants in the educational process — students, parents, and teachers — in dialogue with bearers of foundational Culture; this reliance on academic scholarship is what the school calls academicism ^[7].

Specialization — creating conditions in which a student receives a foundational education, discovers their area of focus, and learns how to learn and retrain independently. This means updating subject content on the basis of project-based methodologies, in-depth study of selected subjects, prioritizing computer literacy and the English language, project and research activities, and expanding freedom of choice within the learning environment. Upon entering the upper grades, the student, together with teachers and parents, maps out an individual educational pathway ^[11].

Career guidance — helping every student choose a profession suited to their inclinations and abilities. The career-guidance environment of grades 8–9 develops motivation for professional self-determination; the specialized-track environment of grades 10–11 sustains it; and the school's educational centers allow students to try out their future work in practice. The school contrasts its understanding of career guidance with the old model: whereas in the twentieth century a person was adapted to fit a standard job, the task now is to create a job for a unique person. "Not to seek one's place among standard jobs, but to create one's own unique job" — such is the motto of the new career guidance as articulated by the school ^[11].

Social development — instilling the qualities with which a graduate will enter society: tolerance, communication skills, readiness for constructive dialogue, the ability to work in a team, creativity, and self-directed activity, understood as mastery of project-work algorithms. It is toward developing these competencies that the school's project-based research work is directed ^[11]. The school explains this shift by the transition from industrial to post-industrial civilization: the bulk of jobs is moving from manufacturing to the service sector, the "person–machine" relationship is giving way to the "person–person" relationship, and the technocratic approach to education is yielding to a human-centered one ^[11].

By 2005, the school's website listed five key value orientations: to the three already named, health preservation and civic consciousness were added ^[20]. The school described a graduate's level of education through three types of competencies — subject, career-guidance, and social — and distinguished between socially significant qualities (communication skills, readiness for teamwork, tolerance, foreign-language proficiency) and personally significant ones (creativity, self-directed activity, information literacy, readiness for a healthy lifestyle) ^[20]. In light of these ideas, the school insisted that a graduate's certificate is a document attesting to a young person's readiness for life in society — which is reflected in its former name, the "Certificate of Maturity" ^[11].

The school considers it significant that the wording of the Memorandum coincides with a government document: the "Priority Directions for the Development of the Educational System of the Russian Federation," approved by the Government of Russia on December 9, 2004, names the same set of qualities as the primary objective of the educational process ^[17].

Tolerance, communication skills, readiness for constructive dialogue, the ability to work in a team, and creativity, as well as self-directed activity understood as mastery of project-work algorithms — competencies that help a school graduate become competitive in contemporary society

Maturity and the school as a brand: from 2009

The school counts the third stage of its "Timeline" from the 2008/09 academic year. For its achievements in innovative work and for its final examination results — ten gold medals and two silver medals, the best result in the city relative to the number of graduates — the school received the distinction "Best Educational Institution of the City of Nizhny Novgorod" for the 2008/09 academic year ^[16].

On November 12, 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev stated in his address to the Federal Assembly that the main task of the modern school is to unlock the abilities of every student. The school saw in this a restatement of its own mission as set out in the Memorandum five years earlier, and declared November 12 the "NAASh Public Recognition Day" — a "red-letter" day in the school calendar ^[16][14].

By "school-brand," the school means four things at once: a defined system of values and norms, confirmation of those values through results, recognizability (symbols, dress style, branded merchandise), and an open information system about itself — a website, a mobile app, a public report, and a network of partners ^[16].

On the occasion of the school's twentieth anniversary, the newspaper Pervoye Sentyabrya described its standing in the educational world, and the school quotes this assessment in invitations to its forums ^[8].

This is no ordinary school — it is well known in Russia's educational world, a source of pride for Nizhny Novgorod and the entire Region. Genuinely original and genuinely academic. It was the first and only school to successfully defend the right not only to its original name, but also to the ability to create its own unique educational pathway

NAASh Traditions, Symbols, and the NAASh Student Oath

The school has three main all-school celebrations: NAASh's Birthday on September 9, Public Recognition Day on November 12, and the assembly of the School Academy of Sciences and Arts. Since 2015, on the school's birthday, the grade-level flags are ceremonially passed from older students to younger ones, and the all-school project platform "School of Academics" launches the year's class projects ^[14].

All new enrollees are initiated as NAASh students: following the oath, members of the Student Council present the NAASh badge and a required element of the school's signature style — a bow tie or neckerchief ^[14].

From the second grade onward, every student has a "NAASh Student Passport" — a personal achievement record in which stamps and stickers of four colors are collected: red for academic achievements, yellow for creative ones, green for athletic ones, and blue for civic ones. On Public Recognition Day, those who have collected the most stickers receive certificates, cups, and the NAASh Prize ^[14].

The school explains the four colors of its emblem in terms of groups of people: green for students, blue for parents, yellow for partners, red for teachers ^[21]. The school also has its own flag, carried out at every celebration, the slogan "Our NAASh present shapes the future," and an anthem with the line "NAASh is one united team, where everyone stands for you, and you — for everyone" ^[21][22].

The school's highest honor is induction into the "NAASh Book of Honor," established for the school's tenth anniversary: it recognizes staff members, graduates, parents, and partners. The first inductees, in 2005, were director Mikhail Burov and deputy director Sofya Lopatina — for developing and implementing the NAASh model — as well as teachers, the head of the library center, and even the school cloakroom attendant Svetlana Kazimirova — "for creating the conditions for implementing the NAASh Model" ^[23]. By the twentieth anniversary, a NAASh Commemorative Medal had been added; separate awards also exist: a lapel badge from the School Academy of Sciences and Arts "For Merit," and diplomas for the best research projects at the assemblies ^[19].

From the school's extracurricular life, entirely unofficial traditions have also entered the city's collective memory — "Walrus Day" and the school beauty pageant ^[11].

I solemnly swear and promise: to love my school with all my heart, to treat school property with care, to respect my elders, to help those younger than me, and to remain a person of honor. I swear to wear the title of NAASh student with pride, always and everywhere

All-Russian Pedagogical Forums

Since 2016, the school has been convening its own gatherings of colleagues: first, a three-day pedagogical forum, "The NAASh Educational Model as a Guarantor of Education Quality," held November 1–3, 2016, and then, from 2017 onward, All-Russian pedagogical forums held once every two to three years with the support of the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Education Development, the Nizhny Novgorod Pedagogical University, and the educational holding company "Developmental Education" ^[24][8].

The jubilee fifth forum, "Project Management Practices in Schools: From Lesson to Models," is scheduled for March 29–31, 2026, and is dedicated to the school's thirtieth anniversary ^[22].

Personalized Education and "SberClass"

Since 2019, the school has participated in Sberbank's charitable foundation program "Contribution to the Future" and operates according to a personalized educational model on the digital platform "SberClass": each student builds their own learning trajectory, while the digital platform serves as a personalization tool ^[25][24].

In December 2020, the school won the all-Russian competition "SberClass Team"; in February 2022, it won a grant competition for schools implementing the personalized education model; and on March 21–23, 2022, it hosted the all-Russian forum "Personalization of Education: Effective Practices" ^[25].

In preparation for these forums, the school published its own methodological materials: a collection titled "The Practice of Personalized Education at NAASh," methodological boxes containing lesson module scenarios and teaching techniques, and a "teacher self-development navigator" ^[24]. Today the school calls itself a flagship of personalized education and holds the "Education Leader" status as recognized by SberObrazovaniye ^[3].

The School Today: Figures and Rankings

In the mid-2000s, the school operated in a single shift: 720 pupils in 31 classes, with a primary-to-middle-to-upper-school ratio of 40:40:20%, 73 teachers, of whom 38 held the highest qualification category (53%), 22 held the first category (30%), and 5 held the second (7%); seven held the distinctions "Excellence in Public Education" and "Honorary Worker of General Education of the Russian Federation," one held the title of Honored Teacher of Russia, and the average teacher age was 40 ^[11]. By September 1, 2017, the school enrolled 1,024 pupils ^[26].

The school described its mid-2000s educational outcomes as follows: in 2006, of the 98% of graduates who entered higher education institutions, 70% gained state-funded places; the largest numbers enrolled at Nizhny Novgorod State University (27%), the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (18%), and the Technical University (16%). On average, 17% of graduates finished school with gold or silver medals, the mean grade-point average of diplomas was 4.4, and approximately half of all graduates received a Certificate of Creative Achievement alongside their school diploma ^[11].

Today the school reports that 98% of its 1,328 graduates have gone on to higher education, that 60% of its teachers hold the highest qualification category and 40% have received various grants, and that based on Unified State Examination results the school ranks among the top twenty schools in Nizhny Novgorod Region ^[3]. In the state final certification results, it has placed near the top of the district ranking by average score for several consecutive years ^[3].

Independent confirmation of these claims comes from the RAEX rating agency, which tracks the share of a school's graduates admitted to the country's leading universities; School No. 186 has appeared in its regional list seven years in a row. In 2022, the Vremya N agency published the regional top 20: Academic School No. 186 ranked fifteenth — the only school in the top twenty alongside a few "ordinary" schools among lyceums and gymnasiums ^[12][13].

As of 1 January 2024, the teaching staff numbered 95 people: 37 with the highest qualification category, 24 with the first category, and two candidates of science. Two hold the title of Honored Teacher of Russia, two have received a letter of commendation from the President of Russia, sixteen have been awarded the badge of Honorary Worker of Education and Enlightenment of the Russian Federation, and ten have received a certificate of merit from the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia as winners of the national project "Education" ^[27].

Mikhail Burov

Mikhail Vasilyevich Burov has led the school since its founding and has been registered as its director in the legal entities register since December 7, 2002 ^[2]. He graduated from the Gorky State Pedagogical Institute named after M. Gorky with a specialization in Russian language and literature teaching, and completed a retraining program in Educational Organization Management; his total professional and teaching experience spans 49 years, 29 of which have been with this school ^[9].

President Vladimir Putin, by Decree No. 572 of October 26, 2016, awarded the NAASh director the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," Second Class ^[18]. On August 31, 2021, Burov was granted the title of Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod Region — he is listed in the official register of the Regional Legislative Assembly for 2021 ^[10].

The full list of the director's awards on the school's website: the badge of honor "Excellence in Public Education" (1992), the title "Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation" (2006), the honorary distinction "Gratitude from the Head of the City" (2007), letters of commendation from the city education department and the regional ministry of education (2008), a letter of commendation from the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia (2011), the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," Second Class (2016), the title of Honorary Citizen of the Region, a commemorative badge, and a jubilee medal marking the 800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod (all — 2021) ^[9].

The school and its director have also been featured in local television programs — notably in Roman Skudnyakov's show "Bez Galstuka" ("No Tie") ^[11].

First-grade enrollment and the prosecutor's intervention

In July 2022, the prosecutor's office of Sovetsky District of Nizhny Novgorod reported that the "Authors' Academic School" had been unlawfully refusing to accept enrollment documents from parents for their children's admission to first grade, and that its administration had issued an unlawful order making a child's admission contingent on the date of their residential registration. The prosecutor's office filed a formal notice with the Mayor of Nizhny Novgorod, after which the school accepted the parents' applications; a school official was fined under Part 1 of Article 5.57 of the Code of Administrative Offenses — violation of the right to education ^[28].

The same year proved difficult for first-grade enrollment in Nizhny Novgorod more broadly: around that time, nearly a hundred prospective first-graders were also turned away at School No. 103 ^[28].

Graduates

The school held its first graduation in 1996, and since then year-by-year graduate lists have been maintained on the school's website — from 1996 through 2024, including the names of each class's homeroom teacher ^[29].

The school compiled the graduate profile based on pedagogical observations, parents' feedback, and expert assessments at final examinations, and has presented it unchanged since the mid-2000s ^[11].

The graduates themselves also judged what the school had achieved. In questionnaires from the late 2000s, among the advantages of the school's new organizational model they cited "the absence of an authoritarian regime, a spirit of freedom and democracy in the school," the ability to choose specialized subjects, an excellent library and "a cozy atmosphere," the absence of a "wall" between teacher and student, and the school assemblies ^[17].

Graduates of the school are distinguished by self-respect and confidence in their own abilities; an active engagement with life; purposefulness and persistence in achieving their goals; a love of freedom and free thinking; independence of judgment and social mobility; the presence of a personal viewpoint on current events and the absence of any fear of expressing it; intellectual and creative curiosity; the ability to find information they need; public-speaking skills and a lack of fear of the adult world; a culture of legal awareness and professional orientation; goodwill and openness in communication; and mutual help and support

This is a school you want to attend; students feel safe here, they are instilled with a love of learning and independence, we were not afraid to go to school and loved staying on long after classes, the school doors are always open, and there is the opportunity to meet interesting people

Internal regulatory framework

The school considers its own set of rules part of its authorial identity: in addition to its charter and the agreement with its founder, by the mid-2000s the school had adopted more than forty local regulatory acts, and the list was published openly ^[11]. It was divided into three parts — covering the school's activities as a whole, its management structure, and the affairs of the staff collective.

• On the school's activities in general: the NAASh Memorandum; regulations on specialized instruction, on the student's portfolio of educational achievements, on grade-free assessment, on interim certification of students, on monitoring of educational quality, on the NAASh public report, on supplementary education for children, on home education, on obtaining a general education through external study, on the organization and procedure of state (final) certification of Year 9 and Year 11 graduates, on the conflict commission for resolving disputes between participants in the educational process, on the extended-day group, on the provision of fee-based services, on the rules for formatting and the procedure for defending a research paper at final certification, on entry into the "NAASh Book of Honor," and on the School Academy of Sciences and Arts "For Merit" badge; rules for school students; the agreement between the school and parents ^[11]
• On governance structure: regulations on the General School Assembly, the Pedagogical Council, the Authors' Academic Council, the Board of Trustees, the general meeting of the workforce, the Student Council, the class parent committee, the teachers' methodological association, the School Academy of Sciences and Arts, the information and resource center, the educational center, the psychological service, the social and pedagogical service, the financial service (accounting), the facilities service, the security service, and the catering service (cafeteria) ^[11]
• On workforce affairs: the collective agreement; internal labor regulations; regulations on material incentives for staff, on the procedure and conditions for granting extended leave to teaching staff, on the school certification commission, and on the class teacher; job descriptions for staff and orders of the director ^[11]

The School's Websites

The school's first website lived at naash.nnov.ru and was built by the school's own students — the school's information technology center: the caption of a 2005 photograph names Vasiliy Gromnitskiy, Georgiy Ignatenko, and Aleksandr Zelenov. The site recommended a resolution of 1024×768 and Internet Explorer 6, hosted a forum, chat, gallery, and invited visitors to rate its design using three buttons — "Excellent!", "Fine!", and "Poor!" ^[11]. It was this version of the site that took third place in the all-Russian competition of websites for schools that serve as federal experimental platforms ^[17].

Since 2016 the school has operated on the naash.ru domain; it hosts chronicles by academic year, lists of graduates since 1996, teacher profiles, awards, traditions, and symbols ^[3]. The official website of School No. 186 in Nizhny Novgorod is now considered to be the page on the Gosweb platform — s186nn.gosuslugi.ru, where all mandatory information about the educational institution has been moved, while naash.ru is explicitly described by the school as unofficial ^[3][4][5]. A separate site, forumnaash.ru, serves the school's all-Russian pedagogical forums ^[22].

Sources

1. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — school website — Contacts (archive)
2. rusprofile.ru — Unified State Register of Legal Entities — MAOU No. 186 "Author's Academic School", TIN 5262043508 (archive)
3. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — NAASh
4. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — administrative section of the school website — Information about the educational organization (archive)
5. s186nn.gosuslugi.ru — Official school website on the state platform "Gosweb" — NAASh — main page
6. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — "Timeline" section of the school website — The Beginning (1993–1995) (archive)
7. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — "Timeline" section of the school website — The Formative Years (1995–1998 academic years) (archive)
8. web.archive.org — "Avtorskiy Klub", 29 September 2016 (web archive copy) — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School (NAASh) holds a three-day Pedagogical Forum (archive)
9. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — "NAASh Teachers" section — Burov Mikhail Vasilyevich (archive)
10. Legislative Assembly of Nizhny Novgorod Region — official list — Honorary Citizens of Nizhny Novgorod Region. Summary page (archive)
11. web.archive.org — First school website naash.nnov.ru, snapshot of 11 January 2005 (web archive) — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School (NAASh). Official website (archive)
12. raex-rr.com — RAEX Rating Agency ("RAEX-Analytics") — school entry in the agency's database — Author's Academic School No. 186 (archive)
13. Vremya N — Vremya N news agency, Nizhny Novgorod, 24 August 2022 — Top 20 Best Schools of Nizhny Novgorod Region Announced (archive)
14. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — school website — NAASh Traditions
15. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — school website — Photo Tour of the School (archive)
16. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — "Timeline" section of the school website — Maturity from 2009. The School as a Brand (2008–2009 academic year to the present) (archive)
17. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — "Timeline" section of the school website — Systemogenesis (1998–2008 academic years)
18. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — school chronicle, 28 October 2016 (archive)
19. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — school website — NAASh Awards (archive)
20. web.archive.org — First school website naash.nnov.ru, snapshot of 12 January 2005 (web archive) — Educational Outcomes of NAASh (archive)
21. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — school website — NAASh Symbols
22. forumnaash.ru — Website of the Pedagogical Forums of Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — 5th All-Russian Pedagogical Forum at NAASh, 29–31 March 2026 (archive)
23. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — school website — List of Inductees into the "NAASh Book of Honour" (archive)
24. forumnaash.ru — Website of the Pedagogical Forums of Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — Forums at NAASh: Development Opportunities (archive)
25. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — school website — Personalized Education at NAASh (archive)
26. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — school chronicle, 1 September 2017 — This year our numbers grew even further: NAASh now has 1,024 pupils (archive)
27. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — "NAASh Teachers" section — Qualitative profile of the teaching staff as of 01.01.2024
28. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — 19 July 2022 — Nizhny Novgorod School No. 186 fined for refusing to admit first-grade pupils (archive)
29. naash.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Author's Academic School — "NAASh Graduates" section — Class of 2024 (archive)