Synthetic Control Method: Weaving Counterfactuals from Data Threads
In the grand tapestry of data-driven decisions, every intervention—be it a policy reform, a marketing strategy, or a medical treatment—leaves its own stitch in history. But to know if that stitch improved the fabric or pulled it apart, we need…
Small, Rural Central California High School Continues To Defy Standardized Education
20 years ago, a small, rural K-8 school district in Central California was told to build a high school or be dissolved. That was the impetus that the Chawanakee Unified School District board and superintendent needed to create what would…
AI-Aware Roles for PBL Collaborative Work
If my tombstone ever gets a subtitle, it will read: ‘Loving husband. Devoted father. PBL fanatic.’ It’s been the story of my 30+ years in education, which extends from 12 years as a classroom teacher to CEO of the Partnership…
From Readiness to Relevance: 3 Ways to Transform Career Connected Learning
By: Dr. Mahnaz R. Charania This past spring, as another high school graduating class crossed the stage—caps tossed high, hopes even higher—one hard truth hovered in the air: too many young people still feel unprepared for what’s next. Recent data…
The Transformative Power of Arts Education | A Conversation with Dr. Lucy Chen
For anyone who has watched a video version of our podcast, it’s clear that I love the arts. My background is guitars, piano, and painting. My first dream career was as a singer-songwriter. My first job was helping teach an…
The Transformative Power of Arts Education | A Conversation with Dr. Lucy Chen
For anyone who has watched a video version of our podcast, it’s clear that I love the arts. My background is guitars, piano, and painting. My first dream career was as a singer-songwriter. My first job was helping teach an…
A Year of Grace
All photos by Sam Chaltain In these final weeks of August, as summer’s meandering pace winds down, a new school year across the country is gradually getting underway. How should those 180 days best be spent? And of all the…
Saying Goodbye to “One Teacher, One Classroom:” How New Models are Modernizing Teaching
By: David Nitkin and Tess Reed The “one teacher, one classroom” model is a shared experience for most American students. For over a century, we’ve been learning in rows of desks, batched by age, completing assignments designed for all yet…
Is Plagiarism an Old-World Construct?
A few weeks ago, my wife and I welcomed colleagues from Beijing National Day School to our home in Napa. A two-hour work session was followed by a leisurely stroll through downtown and dinner at one of our favorite restaurants…
Education R&D Rooted in Community Need: A Conversation with Trenace Dorsey-Hollins
By: Margo Roen and Trenace Dorsey-Hollins While at the Stanford d.school with Imagine Network‘s cohort of school district leaders, I saw a poster that read “Good design is for (and by) everyone.” Across the country, there are bright spots in…
Catalyzing the Future of Learning: How Public Seed Funding Drives EdTech Innovation and Scale
By Edward Metz, Eric Tucker, and Tom Vander Ark A new report, From Seed Funding to Scale, reveals a small, publicly funded R&D program punching far above its weight. Small federal grants helped give about 130 million students and teachers…
Meet me at the Library | A Conversation with Shamichael Hallman
I talk a lot about libraries. I love how they are truly multi-generational, cross-cultural, cross-income spaces. I love the way that they likely were created at such the right place at the right time, that they probably would never happen…
Speaking the Same Language: Why World Language Teaching is Essential to Education
By: Jean-Claude Brizard and Mengting Hou Our experiences as immigrants have allowed us to appreciate the varied cultures that make up these great United States, and delight in the benefits of living in international hubs such as New York, Chicago,…
What’s the Status of Badges? A Mid-Year Check-In at The Badge Summit
Back in February, I attended the Digital Credentials Summit from 1EdTech and wrote a recap of the experience, trying to document the many theories, players and learnings that I observed and met over the three days. A few weeks ago,…
How Montana is Advancing Rural Workforce Solutions
By: Jeran Culina America’s rural states face unique challenges when it comes to workforce development – low population density, geographic isolation, and limited resources. Accelerate Montana has emerged as a national leader in developing evidence-based workforce solutions that demonstrate measurable outcomes while…
What Happens When We Trust Teachers?
By: Michelle Blanchet and Darcy Bakkegard Innovation is a common goal in education. But too often, the very people at the center—teachers—are left out of the process. Professional learning often focuses on ensuring that teachers implement top-down initiatives or adapt…
Scaling Smart: Diversifying Funding and Partnership Strategies During Uncertain Times
With pandemic-era funding streams expiring, delays in federal funding, and cuts to the U.S. Department of Education reducing available dollars, how can education-focused technology and support providers diversify their funding and partnership strategies to sustain and scale their work? Over…
Transforming Teaching: Mindsets That Move Us From Control to Agency
By Dr. Tyler Thigpen and Dr. Caleb Collier Read our new report: Reimagining Educator Competencies: Empowering Learner Agency in the Age of AI A few years ago, one of our Guides—our term for educators—sat down with a new group of…
Teaching in the Metaverse Generation: Aligning School with Virtual Life
I spend nearly six hours each day consuming and creating social media content, including posts like this one. Each afternoon, I devote at least an hour to an augmented reality game that blends the virtual and physical worlds during my…
Advancing AI Through Equity and Access
During a panel discussion at the June 26 panel discussion at the International Society for Technology in Education conference. Leah Austin, president and CEO of the National Black Child Development Institute, urged educators and tech leaders to strike a balance…
Learning Conducive to Life: A Radical Approach at the Biomimicry for Regenerative Design Lab at Green Schools Bali
By: Benjamin Freud “Change without change” is a concept in physics that says you can alter how you describe something mathematically, but the actual outcomes remain exactly the same. This also occurs in education when we change posters and measurement…
Teaching What the World Needs: How Neuroscience, Student Leadership, and Productive Struggle Prepare Learners for What’s Next
By: Kurt Wismer “The highest-priority skills for the future aren’t technical. They’re human.” — World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025 What if we measured student success not by their GPA or seat time, but by their ability to…
What Did I Do “At School” Today? A Learner from 2040 Tells All
Jamie, a fictional young person in 2040, wrote this piece to reflect on her high school experience. You know, when my grandma tells me about her childhood, it sounds so… structured. One school building, one classroom, one teacher for everything….
A Blueprint for Entrepreneurial Nonprofits Operating Inside Higher Education
By: Tami Hill-Washington and Brent Maddin Across the country, educational nonprofits are seeking new paths toward long-term sustainability. At the same time, institutions of higher education (IHEs) are grappling with how to remain relevant, innovative, and sustainable. Arizona State University,…
What Happens When You Trust Young People with Real Problems?
By: Tim Breen and Bridget Collins Energy filled the air in Studio 2. Science educators and student members of the science department gathered in a circle seminar-style to discuss course design for the 2025-26 school year. Sam, a passionate and…
Reimagining School Starts with Reclaiming Time
By: Rachel Albright, Lacey Eckels, and Carmen Coleman Never mistake activity for achievement. John Wooden Across the country, educators are working harder than ever—yet the results don’t always match the effort. We’ve defined what we want for our students through…
Tech for Good: Using SDGs and Deeper Learning Principles to Inspire Change
By: Charles Pimentel Meaningful and purposeful technology classes, connected to real-world issues, are a key element of learning at Graded – The American School of São Paulo, Brazil. As a teacher in the Upper School Design and Technology Department, my…
Human-in-the-Loop Is Not a Buzzword: It’s a Teacher’s Job
When my wife and I watch The Masked Singer we sit on the couch, a large glass of water at the ready so we can take big gulps every time one of the judges says either “legendary” or “iconic” to…
From Idea to Impact: How AI is Fueling the Next Generation of Student Entrepreneurs
Artificial Intelligence is more than a classroom buzzword or a futuristic dream—it’s rapidly becoming the foundation for innovation, especially among young entrepreneurs. Across the globe, high-school students are seizing the opportunity to create meaningful, tech-powered solutions to problems that affect…
AI Companions vs. AI Tutors: What Educators Need to Know
While teachers take a well-deserved summer break, two categories of AI tools, tutors and companions, are quietly shaping the educational landscape they’ll return to. Teachers are becoming comfortable with the idea that they will share classroom duties with AI tutoring…
Integrating Traditional Assessments into Non-Traditional Learning Environments
By: Kendra Eboigbodin, M.Ed. The Role of Assessments in Driving Learning During our academic success consultations and tours, most parents with children in grades 3-5 ask, “Does my child have to take the test?” The test they refer to is…
Why Institutions Must Fix Their Data Before AI Defines Them
By: Scott Cheney, CEO, Credential Engine One of the biggest potential challenges facing higher education is being ignored. Amid the myriad of external crises impacting higher education — from the unknown impacts of changes at the Department of Education to…
From Theory to Practice: How AI Is Quietly Reshaping College Admissions
By: Ashish Fernando Higher education is experiencing a paradigm shift. Institutions are now looking at AI-powered solutions as a viable property to streamline operations, engage students better, and boost enrollments. The change in attitude is a visible sign that AI…
In Dallas, a Big Thought is Brewing About How Cities Can Help Their Children Grow
In the cultural and commercial hub that is Dallas, Texas — home of the NFL’s Cowboys, site of JFK’s assassination, and land of the Big Oil VIPs — one out of every four residents is under the age of eighteen….
Beyond the Grade: How One Stone’s Growth Framework Empowers Learners for Life
By: Celeste Bolin, Susan Haws, Sophie Gunther, Lauren Mansfield, Raya Naymik As microschools around the world take up the challenge of designing and delivering educational experiences that meet the needs of 21st-century learners, they are inevitably considering not only what…
How Do You Build a Learner-Centered Ecosystem?
By: Bobbi Macdonald and Alin Bennett All photos in this post were taken by Joanna Zhang. What new shapes might education need to assume if we wish to properly equip young people for their future — as opposed to our…
Think & Make: Teen-Directed Innovation Training Scales in India
The ability to innovate and solve problems creatively is no longer a niche skill – it’s a fundamental necessity for individuals and societies to thrive in a complex world. Recognizing this imperative, the Inqui-Lab Foundation, a non-profit organization based in…
Generations of Making “the World the Way it Ought to Be” | A Conversation with Generations of Jeffco Open School
Editor’s Note We recently highlighted Colorado’s unbundled ecosystem and featured JeffCo Open School. To learn more about the emerging ecosystem in Colorado, be sure to check out that episode. Learn More A year or so ago, the Getting Smart team…
Confronting Education: A Manifesto for a World in Transition
By: Will Richardson The world is shifting beneath our feet. Ecological collapse, social fragmentation, and political dysfunction are no longer distant threats; they are our daily reality. In this time between worlds, education stands at a crossroads. It can either…
Resilience in Action: How Three Western NC Educators Are Reimagining Education After Disaster
By: Wesley Davis Rising from the Storm: A Regional Call to Redesign It’s a clear spring morning in 2025, and Tucker Waldron, science teacher, is watching a group of high schoolers from the School for Inquiry and Life Sciences Asheville…
We Asked A Student in 2040 What Living with An LER is Like—Here’s What She Said
By: Mason Pashia and Beth Ardner These days, Learner Employment Records (LERs) are everywhere, if you know where to look. From new state-level legislation in California to radical workforce partnerships like the Alabama Talent Triad and the work being done…
The Student-Led, Industry-Connected Learning: Voices from the CAPS Network
By: Alisa Morse The conversation across today’s education landscape is filled with phrases like career-connected learning, work-based learning and real-world learning. There is one phrase that encompasses and expands upon these: Profession Based Learning (ProBL). The Center for Advanced Professional…
Using Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Instructional Coaching and Teacher Reflection
By: Nick Lundberg Our district has a rich history of delivering meaningful professional development for teachers and we continue to seek innovative ways to meet the diverse needs of all teachers. Instructional coaches have been invaluable to this learning, especially…
How AI Impacts Implementation of Portrait of a Graduate
The literati who reside on the coasts are always surprised when progressive educational movements first take root in the vast landmass between the eastern border of California and the western border of Maryland. I have witnessed this three times in…
From Clusters to Culture: Sustaining Readiness Through MAP(s)
In the final blog of this series, I’ll share how we are embedding this work into our district’s DNA—so it doesn’t live in programs, but in policy, leadership, communication, and community expectations. Because when readiness becomes the culture of a…
Mapping a Path to Equity: How GIS and Mentorship Are Transforming STEM Access for Minority Youth
In Tucson, Arizona, a groundbreaking initiative is reshaping the future of STEM education—and who gets to be part of it. By combining geospatial technology, intergenerational mentorship, and real-world community engagement, a program is helping underrepresented students not only see themselves…
Leading With Learning: A Webinar Series Full of Guidance for District Leaders
Public education leaders face unprecedented challenges in today’s political climate, with every decision under scrutiny and public trust in schools declining. This environment has led to high superintendent turnover, as politics tops the list of stressors for educators. To address…
In North Carolina, a Sea of Oxygen Bubbles — Spreading Across the State’s School Districts
Lexington Senior High School, thirty miles south of Winston-Salem, is the proud home of the Yellow Jackets. Built in 1953, it’s surrounded by small neighborhood houses with well-kept yards. An armada of yellow school buses line up daily outside its…
Why Evidence Is Everything in An AI World
The writer Annie Dillard is often attributed with the quote: “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” For Dillard, the beauty is in the details, and so is the learning. Social media and algorithms…
Clusters in Action: Building Pathway Ecosystems That Work
Behind the scenes, this framework isn’t just theory. It’s motion. It is the heartbeat of projects like: Maritime|253 Skills Center (Launching Fall 2026) Tacoma Flex Jobs 253 And the integration of Social Capital and Mentorship into the DNA of our…
How Educators Can Encourage Students to Harness their Passions to Become Sustainability Changemakers
By Jenna Audlin A high school senior and keynote speaker for the upcoming Sustainable Futures Climate Summit shares how educators can help students turn their interest in sustainability into real-world action. From a young age, I’ve been deeply involved in…
No Words Wasted: How AI and Voice Tech Are Elevating Learning Moments
By: Wes Kriesel In education, we often lose the magic of the moment. A great student idea spoken aloud, an inspiring thought shared during a partner turn-and-talk, or a powerful insight in a staff breakout can disappear, undocumented and uncelebrated….
The Public Microschool Playbook: A New Actionable Guide for System Leaders
Across the country, school and system leaders are grappling with how to make learning more personalized, more flexible, and more relevant to students’ lives and futures. Public microschools are emerging as a powerful way forward by offering small, purpose-built learning…
The Reboot of Readiness: It’s Time to Take Action in Renovating CTE from the Ground Up
By Adam Kulaas We’re in the middle of a readiness crisis. Not a standardized test score crisis, not a graduation rate crisis. We are in the midst of a relevance crisis, where too many youth walk across the stage with…
Connection and Co-Regulation Precede Self-Management: A Common Sense Approach to Learning, Development and Discipline
By: Tami Hill-Washington, Kathleen Osta Every child deserves to be in schools and classrooms where they feel safe and supported to learn. But how we achieve that safety when it comes to school discipline — and what it actually takes…
Schools Alive with Transformational Learning
The ISTE+ASCD Transformational Learning Principles are a set of evidence-based practices that highlight the most essential elements of effective learning. Organized in three categories—Nurture, Empower and Guide—the Principles are aligned with Getting Smart Design Principles (accessible, personalized, purposeful, joyful, authentic,…
Harnessing Cross-Cutting Career Clusters to Prepare Learners for the Future of Work
By: Mason Pashia and Stacy Whitehouse As the demands of the workforce evolve, so too must the ways we prepare learners. Today’s careers are increasingly complex, multidimensional, and interdisciplinary; however, our pathways remain static and siloed. The future of work…
How Does Agency Shape Education? | A Conversation with Charles Fadel
Last year, we did a deep dive on education in the age of AI with Charles Fadel, unpacking a beautiful framework that highlights a set of skills, character traits, and meta-learning, applying a modern emphasis to each one of them,…
What is the Evolving Role of Future Educators?
What if tomorrow’s classrooms didn’t just prepare students for life, but were life? A life increasingly co-authored with intelligent systems and evolving technologies. This is already a lived reality in pockets across the country, where classrooms feel less like institutions…
AI Agents Are Coming to a Classroom Near You
One of the dirty little secrets of being an “expert” in a field such as classroom use of AI is that you develop much of your expertise by facilitating workshops and speaking at conferences, where you learn from the daily…
Leading in Uncertain Times
I am the daughter of educators, So, I became a learnerI am the granddaughter of resilient women, So, I became their strength and determination Recently, I had the honor of joining a local gathering in Tacoma, Charting Our Future: The Power of…
State Education R&D: A Catalyst for Innovation, Continuous Improvement, and System Transformation
By Sarah Bishop-Root & Leslie Colwell What if a State Board of Education established a grant program to fund personalized, competency-based learning—from planning through expansion? Or a state agency joined forces with a public research university’s innovation hub to run…
Lifelong Learning as Abundant Learning
I recently had the chance to chat with a small group about why an abundance mindset is key to driving education innovation. In this conversation, we looked at ESAs as a radical lever in reframing the supply and demand equation…
In Wisconsin, How Has A Rural Respite for Learning Become a Statewide Haven for Healing?
The landscape of Southeast Wisconsin feels like it belongs to another era. Wavy prairies and sentinel rows of Maple and Oak trees fill its ample spaces, providing a sense of solitude amid modernity’s encroachment. The entire region is situated on…
Copying and Pasting Your Way to Critical Thinking
Consider for a moment the humble copy and paste function of your computing device. How many times per day do you think you use that function to move content from one location to another? Have you ever copied a recipe…
Reimagining ‘Where’ Learning Happens: Schools as Community Hubs within a Personalized Ecosystem
Throughout history, from apprenticeships to field studies, learning has always extended beyond the walls of a classroom. Think about how often we learn outside traditional classrooms now – from looking up DIY fixes online to diving down rabbit holes sparked…
Students Aren’t Coming to School – Here’s What We Can Do About It
By: Kara Stern, Ph.D I recently spoke with a middle school principal in the lower Hudson Valley who challenged her team to a simple exercise: reading down the entire school roster, could someone in the building speak knowledgeably about each…
Relationally Responsible Tech: Designing a Digital Future That Puts People First
What if, instead of asking what technology can do, we started by asking who we want to become? In an age where “junk tech” floods our lives—designed to extract attention rather than deepen connection—it’s time to flip the script. We…
The Transcript Trap: Why Our Students Need Credentials, Not Just Grades
As education leaders, we’re not just preparing students for today; we’re preparing them for a future we can barely imagine. Yet, our current system, obsessed with transcripts and test scores, is failing them. We pour our energy into crafting meaningful…
From Chronic Absenteeism to the New Absenteeism: Five Profiles of Youth Engagement
By: Colleen Keating-Crawford, Michelle Jia, and Goutham Marimuthu School leaders, organizations and governments are sounding the alarm about chronically absent young people, typically defined as those who miss 10% or more of the school year whether due to excused or unexcused absences. Research has long demonstrated…
CoSN 2025: With Human Leadership Comes Great Power, and Great Responsibility
What do you get when you put a lot of district-level technology professionals and edtech providers in a room? A guarantee that someone has the necessary dongle… and you get CoSN, a gathering of district leaders, providers and advocacy experts…
How Can AI Fuel Deeper Learning? A Conversation with Kali Frederick and Aatash Parikh
It is the top of the second inning in the age of AI, and I think in the last few weeks we passed a new threshold of access to expertise. The information age, where my 40-year career was about access…
Transforming Public Education: A Blueprint for Learner-Centered Change
By Alan Cheng, High School Superintendent, NYC Public Schools Having spent two decades in New York City Public Schools, including six years leading 50 high schools in the Consortium, Internationals, NYC Outward Bound Schools portfolio, I’ve witnessed the transformative power…
Are Human Beings Necessary in the Life Cycle of Knowledge?
A few nights ago I spent 90 minutes online with the staff of an elite public school in Shenzhen, China. I gave an hour-long talk about generative AI and its uses in education then engaged my audience in a 30-minute…
In the City by the Sea, a Civic Upswing is Underway
If you arrive in Newport, Rhode Island via the long bridges from the mainland that stretch across Narragansett Bay, you are immediately faced with a choice: Head south, and you’ll find the legendary mansions of the Gilded Age—massive marble palaces…
More Options, More Opportunities: How AI Can Support High-Quality Learning for All
By: Michael Ham and Beth Holland The current administration has prioritized expanding school choice, reflecting a growing demand for flexible learning options. At the same time, advances in AI—and the emergence of “AI-powered schools”—are reshaping conversations about the future of…
Should Courses Be Broken Up into Learning Experiences? Smaller Grain Size Increases Flexibility and Transparency
In a recent design session with a partner, we debated the merits of the grain size of reporting and learning experience design. Most secondary schools (and higher education) across the United States report out at the course level, where the…
Breaking the Math Mold: How Self-Directed Learners Are Becoming Math Masters
By Dr. Tyler Thigpen, Dr. Caleb Collier, and Trey Lackey “How do they learn math?” That might be the most common question we get asked at The Forest School: An Acton Academy and The Forest School Online. In self-directed learning…
Choosing Abundance Despite an Instinct for Scarcity
Humans default to a scarcity mindset — think early days of the pandemic when tens of thousands of people hoarded all of the toilet paper for fear of supply running out. While not only a mindset (it’s also biological as…
Tending Tomorrow’s Soil: Investing In Learning Ecosystems
Article By: Gregg Behr “Tending soil.” That’s how Fred Rogers described Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, his beloved television program that aired from 1968 to 2001. Grounded in principles gleaned from top learning scientists, the Neighborhood offered a model for how “learning ecosystems” can work in tandem…
What’s the Status of Credentials? Digital Credentials Summit 2025
At 1EdTech’s 2025 Digital Credentials Summit in Phoenix, Arizona it was data, flow chart and taxonomy galore. For me, a few numbers from the opening keynote set the stage for the week: 65% of a person’s job will change every…
Building Systems That Serve: The Power of the Getting Smart Innovation Framework
School and system redesign is not new. Throughout the history of formalized education, educators and leaders have challenged the “one-size-fits-all” factory model, striving for more effective learning approaches. While this model increased access to education, it often failed to unlock…
How AI Supports Deeper Learning: Reflections from the AI K-12 Deeper Learning Summit
The future of education is deeper learning, and it’s powered by artificial intelligence. The branding is possibility. The vision (in Anaheim UHSD) is to “create a better world through Unlimited You.” That was the resounding message at the AI K-12…
Kentucky’s Learning Ecosystem in 2040: A Day in the Life
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
How Resilient are New Pathways in a Changing Labor Market?
New Pathways has been a framework for us to unpack different school and community levers that can better set young people up for success in what’s next. It’s an urgent mission, made more difficult because the world doesn’t stay still…
Redefining Research in a Gen-AI Powered Classroom
I am so old that when I was an undergraduate student I used to visit the library to rifle through card catalogs before heading to the stacks to doggedly search for books and journals that I dragged back to a…
From Classroom to Career: How Deeply Embedding Career Clusters Can Help Bridge the Gap
Career Clusters are often narrowly associated with Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. While CTE programs are undeniably crucial in providing hands-on training and career exploration, the power of Career Clusters extends far beyond CTE. These Clusters provide a framework…
5 Most Versatile Certifications for High School Students
By: Athena Kan Ever since kids were little, they’ve been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It’s a tough question, right? And it only gets harder as they move through high school and start thinking…
Getting H3 Right: Critical Recommendations for Funders and Policymakers
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Academic Excellence Through The Arts and Experience
The Southland College Preparatory Charter High School (SCPHS; also known as Southland College Prep, Southland College Prep High School, or simply Southland) is a College Preparatory Charter High School in Richton Park, Illinois. The school serves the communities of Richton Park, Country Club Hills, Matteson, Olympia Fields, and Park Forest. Southland…
Erin McNeill on Why We Need Media Literacy Now
We’ve been thinking a lot about whether or not schools are paying enough attention to teaching about media—what’s online, its purpose, and the impact. Part of this is driven by emerging technology and some of it is built on the…
Enhancing Education Through Transparency | Getting Smart
By: Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth School choice has become increasingly competitive. With so many schools to choose from, traditional factors such as location, course offerings, and extracurricular activities no longer set a school apart. Parents now look for standout qualities—schools with…
Uplift Education Launches Health Pathways
There are an estimated two million open healthcare industry jobs and an additional two million are expected by 2031. According to SHRM, by 2034 the United States will have 134,000 fewer physicians than it needs. We’re seeing schools and intermediaries…
6 Characteristics of an Education that Students Want
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Using Gen AI to Design, Implement, and Assess PBL
One of the most frequent questions I get during the generative AI professional development workshops I facilitate in the U.S. and China is pretty basic: “How do I use gen AI with PBL?” The question makes me happy because it…
Diving into the Evidence: Virtual and Hybrid Models as High-Quality School Choice Options
By: Rae Lymer and Beth Holland Diving into the Evidence: Virtual and Hybrid Models as High-Quality School Choice Options The White House recently issued an executive order making “school choice” a top education priority for the current administration. Although the…
Customizing Innovative Practices at Pinnacles Prep
The journey of transformation in educational settings often remains invisible as it unfolds. Originating stories are typically revisited only years later, refined and polished, sometimes devoid of the rich, albeit chaotic, development moments. I am in constant search of surfacing…
5 Obstacles (and Solutions) to Transforming School Systems for the 21st Century
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
How AI is Changing Learning Goals
“The current crisis…is not just a crisis of individuals, governments, or social institutions; it is a transition of planetary dimensions. As individuals, as a society, as a civilization, and as a planetary ecosystem, we are reaching the turning point.” Fritjof…
Empowering Futures by Turning Electives into Meaningful Career Pathways
High school electives are often dismissed as “just for fun”—a break from core subjects, a chance to explore personal interests. But what if these classes could be more than just a pleasant diversion? Imagine electives designed to provide students with…
Honoring the Foundations of Educational Equity
This image is a work of a United States Department of Justice employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain (17 U.S.C. § 101 and 105). Each…
The Flight School: Reimagining the Path to Adulthood
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Your Public Library Is an Untapped Resource for Young Entrepreneurs
“Libraries have long supported small businesses. The Seattle Public Library is one of the two oldest business-supporting organizations (alongside the Chamber of Commerce) in the city,” said Jay Lyman, Librarian with the Community Engagement and Economic Development group at The…
New Alternative Education Campus Works To Shift Student Learning Experiences
Like many terms in education, Alternative Education has been used to define any number of learning environments. For some, it’s about a student-centered educational model that provides specialized instruction designed to meet the needs of students who may not thrive…
Shifting to an H3 Mindset Starts With Believing in the Power of Students
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Linguistic Activism in Chefchaouen: Place-Based Learning with a Twist
By: Nicole Assisi When traveling for work and pleasure, I often share insights from the schools I visit, such as in Luxembourg and Alaska. As I continued my journey exploring place-based learning, my winter travels took me to a destination…
Creating Pathways to Confidence and Careers: The Impact of Peer Support on LGBTQIA+ Youth
By Valerie Grison-Alsop We are facing a mental health crisis in the U.S., especially among young people. According to a 2024 report by Mental Health America, 20% of youth aged 12-17 report suffering from at least one major depressive episode,…
Flipping the Script: Hollywood’s Role in Changing Depictions of Learning Environments
Representation matters, especially in storytelling. It shapes our aspirations, influences the choices we make, and even alters how we perceive and value education. Many parents echo a common sentiment: “My child preferred the conventional high school experience over a unique…
Agency for nine-month-olds? Yes! | Getting Smart
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Beyond The Experience: HBCUs Are Growing and Making an Impact
Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have recently seen an increase in enrollment, which contrasts with the overall reduction seen at other post-secondary institutions. According to new data from the National Center for Education Statistics, HBCU enrollment rose by 7…
Keeping The Dream Alive in Education
As we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on this day, we are reminded of his profound words: “The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency…
A New Era of Public Education: Potential Scenarios for the Next Presidential Administration
By: Margo Roen With any presidential transition, there are shifts–new hires and resignations, policy changes, and funding changes to align with a new agenda. However, with the impending president’s stated commitment to get rid of the United States Department of…
Transforming Teaching in Ohio’s Largest School District
Transforming Teaching in Ohio’s Largest School District America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need…
WISE recognizes innovative projects from around the world
In 2017 I was fortunate to be invited to the World Innovation Summit in Education by the Qatar Foundation International. This remarkable conference, held every two years in Doha, opened my eyes to the educational innovations being developed globally. I…
Fostering Positive Mindsets Through Reflection
By: Carissa Solomon I have always hated getting things wrong. As a student, I aimed to get everything correct on the first try—after all, that was how school had trained me to think. It wasn’t until I became a teacher…
Small Steps, Big Impact: Teaching Students to Address Global Challenges
By: Bonnie Nieves In 2015, the United Nations established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a framework of 17 objectives designed to address global challenges like inequality, climate change, and peace by 2030. Yet, significant setbacks—global crises, pandemics, and social inequities—make…
How Teachers Can Orchestrate a Classroom Filled with AI Tools
Stanford’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence initiative recently released its Global AI Power Rankings. I doubt anyone is surprised that the U.S., China, and the UK topped the overall rankings. I’ve spent the last two years studying how the U.S. education system…
99 Problems: Why Time Spent Refining the Problem Space is a Critical Part of Entrepreneurial Mindset
By: Miranda Canniff This past summer was the 10th iteration of Nalukai Academy’s Summer Startup Camp for Hawai’i high school students. Every year since its inception, the camp has evolved––driven by feedback from Nalukai alumni, facilitators, and community members––from its…
Catalyzing Educator & Student Agency through Community-Engaged Learning
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
New in 2025 and What Edleaders Should Do About It
2025 will be a year of hyperchange and navigating in the gray. New technology boasts more opportunity and more risk than ever before. Education leaders are called to create environments alive with possibility and safe from harm. Easy right? The…
Five Findings on How (and Whether) Schools Advise Students
By Andy Schmitz and Bill DeBaun The most recent nationally representative survey data of school leaders offers a valuable look into how students receive postsecondary advising supports, who provides them, and how (and whether) schools inform their advising with data….
Integrating Place, Projects, and Profession to Build Purpose and Competency
Learning approaches are full of acronyms, and PBL holds the most comprehensive ownership over multiple approaches, representing personalized, place-based, project-based, profession-based, purpose-based, and phenomena-based. With the increasing emphasis on real-world learning to develop the technical and durable skills to prepare…
Getting Started with a Learner-Driven Classroom: A Guide for Educators
By: Dr. Jacqueline Zweig and Dr. Kathryn Kennedy As dedicated K-12 education researchers, we spent the past two years immersed in the educational landscapes of schools across Ohio, observing the implementation of personalized learning through a combination of focus groups,…
The Rise of AI Agents: More Time for Real-World Learning or the Era of Cognitive Laziness?
These days, it seems like nearly every topic finds its way back to AI, somehow. Because of the rapid rate of progress, it’s difficult to keep up and this learning edge is a place ripe with hope and caution. In…
What Should Citizenship Education and Assessment Actually Look Like?
On a recent episode of The Ezra Klein Show, Vivek Ramaswamy made the argument that all high school students should have to pass a citizenship test, as well as hopeful immigrants to America. He struggled with the assessment styles but…
The Joy of Learning: A Core Principle for Success
Imagine stepping into two classrooms, both aiming to grow young writers. Both are led by expert teachers with strong curricula and supportive technology, yet each room feels worlds apart. In the first classroom, the teacher skillfully leads a narrative writing…
A New Infrastructure for Learning Credentials
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Supporting Students with Disabilities Through Changing Education Policies
One thing is for certain: On Inauguration Day, January 20, a new administration will be sworn in, ushering in a fresh set of policies, priorities, and uncertainties about the future of education in the United States. Among these uncertainties, one…
In Ohio, A Capital City Starts to Connect Its Own Dots
By: Sam Chaltain Of all the sciences, archaeology is the most destructive — and the most vital to the humanities. That’s why Annalies Corbin fell in love with it. As a child growing up on Texas’s gulf coast, Corbin wandered…
To Fully Realize Horizon Three, We Need New Accountability Systems
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Can’t-Miss Education Conferences in 2025
Our team is incredibly fortunate to participate in and attend dozens of conferences around the world. These events offer opportunities to connect with educators, innovators, and thought leaders shaping the future of education. Whether you’re looking to deepen your knowledge…
The Importance of Purpose-Based Learning in K-12 Education
In August, we shared design principles that we believe are essential for every learner to thrive. In this blog, we explain why purposeful learning is so important, emphasizing that all students deserve experiences connected to their community, focused on making…
Impact Projects at Northeastern University
Engaging students in impact-driven projects is one of the most effective ways to cultivate valuable skills while developing what Charles Fadel refers to as the key Drivers of learning: Motivation, Identity, Agency, and Purpose. These Drivers are increasingly recognized as…
Will AI Flip the Role of the Classroom Teacher?
A study tour of two innovative schools in New England has led me to rethink my understanding of how AI will reshape the role of the teacher in the modern classroom. On this tour, I was fortunate to join a…
Authentic Learning Experiences | Getting Smart
In August, we published the following design principles, which we believe are core for every learner to thrive. In this blog, we present our rationale for elevating authentic learning – that all students deserve authentic learning experiences that are culturally…
Educator Roles as a Catalyst for Transformation
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Facilitating Student Discussions with Technology
By: Jonathan Lee Lancaster Education is about students. We should be striving to make our classrooms as student-centered as possible, which means offering students the chance to have autonomous discussions about ideas, topics, and content topics that matter. This isn’t…
Why Neurodiversity Matters When Talking About Anti-Bias Education
By: Roots ConnectED In the same way that race and class make up parts of who we are, how we learn and think is a part of our identity. Othering any part of ourselves denies us the capacity to create…
Why High-Quality Learning Opportunities Must Be Personalized to Each Learner
In August, we published the following design principles, which we believe are core for every learner to thrive. In this blog, we present our rationale for elevating personalized learning – that all students deserve personalized learning experiences that are adaptive…
One Goal, Two Journeys: The Role of Community and Workforce in Defining Graduate
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Empowering Students to Bridge the Gap Between High School and Career Success
By: Clare Bertrand & Josh Wright High school students across the country share a common struggle — navigating how to prepare for a future career. An increasing number of high-quality non-degree pathways adds to the complexity, making it tough for…
Your Power Beyond the Polls: Ways Families Can Shape School Communities
As the 2024 election season nears its end, it’s clear that education is one of the most essential issues on the ballot. National debates may seem distant, but local involvement in our children’s schools provides parents and caregivers with a…
Why ‘Just Tell a Teacher’ Isn’t Enough – The Power of Bystander Intervention to End Bullying
By: Jorge Arteaga In a time when 1 in 5 students face bullying, equipping young people with the skills to stand up against these injustices is more crucial than ever. While traditional approaches like “tell a teacher” have been helpful,…
A New Operating System for Public Education: Learner-Centered Ecosystems
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Let High Schoolers Do Less? Let High Schoolers Experience More
The New York Times ran a guest column last month by an English teacher calling for high school students to “do less so they can do better.” Student responses from three schools (two suburban public schools and one private school)…
AI Can Help STEM Bridge Educational Disparities
In the 1990s the folks at the National Science Foundation began bouncing around the acronym SMET to describe the related disciplines of science, math, engineering, and technology. It did not catch on. In 2001, Judith Ramaley, a biologist who was…
First-Year Insights into Building a Truly Learner-Centered Approach with SparkNC
By: Dana Brinson SparkNC is a whole new way to do school, offering learner-centered, industry-relevant, and competency-based learning in high-tech fields–like cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and game and software development–across our interdistrict network of 17 North Carolina public school districts. The…
Igniting the Flame: How Motivation Catalyzes Student Potential in Horizon 3 Education
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
The AI Revolution in Teaching: How It Changes Everything
By: Dr. Amy Galloway Swann As educators, we’ve been through countless waves of innovation, but none compare to the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence (AI). While many focus on how AI can personalize instruction or raise concerns about cheating, the…
4 Promises Drive Rural School Transformation at Eastern Hancock Schools
30 miles east of Indianapolis sits the charming little town of Greenfield—a few hundred buildings at the intersection of Highway 40 and State Route 9 including a grain silo converted into a popular local restaurant. Another 15 minutes east between…
The Pandemic Proved that High-Dosage Tutoring is Essential. We Can’t Give it Up.
By: Michael Thomas Duffy A few years ago, as the world was grappling with COVID-19 and its aftermath, two developments in teaching and learning occurred that, in retrospect, were not only revolutionary but interconnected. The first took place in March…
How We Lead the Change Is the Change: Horizon 3 Leadership
By: Kathleen Osta, LaShawn Routé Chatmon, Tom Malarkey What kind of leadership is needed to design and sustain new approaches to public education that are personalized, purposeful, joyful, authentic and challenging – and consistently and equitably meet the developmental needs…
Next-Generation Durable Skills Assessment | Getting Smart
Over the last five years, significant efforts emerged around the importance of durable or transferable skills. These durable skills (also called transferable skills or competencies) balance out the skills triangle (with core skills – reading, writing, math, and technical skills…
Empowering Student Voice to Drive Change
By: Luanna Huang and Ezra Rottman Young people are the voice of our next generation, and their role in shaping the world cannot be overstated. Among these critical voices is the Student Voice in Education, a driving force in elevating…
The Future of Accelerating Impact is Here: Reflections on The Global Impact Forum (TGIF) 2024
In September, the inaugural GSVxPenn State: The Global Impact Forum brought together over 500 students and global changemakers from education, entrepreneurship, investment, and AI/ed-tech for more than 100 dynamic sessions at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The 2024 theme,…
How Generative AI Can Enable & Accelerate H3 School Transformation
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
The Life of a Future-Ready School: Video Visits of Garden City School
“Welcome to Garden City School, perhaps an unsuspecting place for a radical leap forward in what school can be.” By: Nathan Strenge In the heart of Cranston, Rhode Island, Garden City School is redefining what it means to attend a…
Customizable AI-Powered Textbooks Reshape Learning
For the last 20 months, generative AI has forced a redo of how educators approach curriculum design, assessment, and instructional support. Textbooks, your time has come. Beginning this spring, the world’s first large-scale AI-powered textbook implementation will take place in…
Centering Learners by Design: Shaping the Future of Education
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
A Profile in Experiential Leadership: The Impact of the Gentlemen’s and Ladies Leadership Clubs
Experiential leadership programs encourage participants to make decisions, take initiative, establish relationships, and be accountable. They provide a foundation of abilities and experiences that may be utilized and modified for real-world events and difficulties in the future. Experiential leaders are…
Reimagining Schools in a Climate-Challenged World
By Cameron Paterson Our education system faces significant challenges. Young people are signaling their discontent through declining attendance, increasing disruptive behavior, and concerning levels of mental health issues – tangible expressions of the desire for an educational experience that better…
Kindling the Spark: How the Portrait of a Graduate Becomes the Catalyst for Transformation
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Why High-Quality Learning Opportunities Must Be Accessible to Every Student
In August, we published the following design principles, which we believe are core for every learner to thrive. In this blog, we present our rationale for elevating accessibility – that all students deserve access to high-quality learning opportunities that support…
Educators discuss the state of creativity in an AI world
By: Joe & Kristin Merrill, LaKeshia Brooks, Dominique’ Harbour, Erika Sandstrom Another school year is in full swing and one of the most discussed topics in education is the integration of artificial intelligence in classrooms. The conversation has sparked an…
What Should Young People Get Really Good At?
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable…
Gen AI Demands We Teach Critical Thinking
A couple of days ago I sent my wife a text that included a link to this TikTok video, which gave some pointed advice about healthy oat milk brands. Her response, as expected, was short: “Is this real?” I had…
Uplifting Hispanic Heritage While Empowering Tomorrow’s Leaders in Education
At Getting Smart, we believe that education is a powerful tool for honoring the diversity and rich history that has shaped the world we live in today. Hispanic Heritage Month (celebrated annually from September 15 to October 15) offers an…
The Next Horizon | Getting Smart
By: Sujata Bhatt America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education…
New Frontiers in Education: VELA Con 2024 Ushers in a New Era of Learning
By: Lizette Valles & Victoria Andrews The inaugural VELA Con 2024, hosted by The VELA Founder Network, and held from June 13-15 in Washington, D.C., gathered educators and edupreneurs from across the country to share ideas, champion personalized learning, share struggles…
The Time is Now for Revelatory Assessment
What is the purpose of school? In recent years, there’s been a resurgence of possibility in answering this question with different timelines, school models, and rationale. With the access and rapid development of AI tools, the tumultuous workforce and industry…
A New Approach to Digital Equity: A Framework for States and Schools
By Jessica K. Jackson, Jeffrey Starr, Ed.D, and D’Andre Weaver, Ph.D For more than a decade, Digital Promise has been at the forefront of conversations and efforts to close the Digital Learning Gap—caused by differences in how learners access and…
Amplifying Excellence in Career Education and Development
In December 2023, the Educating All Learners Alliance (EALA) hosted a Community of Action with the intent to fund at least one project that could provide a solution to an identified challenge in the field of education related to students…
How to Design Schools to Grow Thriving Adults: A Provocation
America’s education system was a groundbreaking effort to help a growing nation thrive in the 19th century. Now, 200 years later, the world has changed; the horizon looks drastically different. Collectively, we need to redesign our education system to enable all of…
How AI Knocks Down Classroom Barriers
By Alyssa Faubion Before I became a teacher or an instructional coach, I was told my success would be measured in a nice, neat box known as an assessment. Multiple-choice questions were not where I shone. Luckily, my high school…
Empowering Small Schools for Transformative Change
In an era where education is constantly evolving, microschools have emerged as catalysts for innovation, providing personalized and community-centered learning experiences. At Getting Smart, we see microschools not as a threat to public education but as one of many equitable…
Our Past, Present, and Future
By: Kara Bobroff (Dine’/Lakota) Our Present: From Schools to Networks You start with a single school – like a small garden designed to speak to the hopes, needs, and vision of the community – a space where you can create…
How the ‘Portrait of a Graduate’ Infuses Student Learning with Joy and Hope
By Shannon King, Ph.D. Accountability is crucial in education. As educational leaders, we must ensure students meet high learning standards. However, our single-minded focus on standardized testing is extinguishing the joy of learning for many students. Now, imagine an education…
Making Learning Relevant to Students’ Lives and Communities
By Josh Schachter and Melinda Englert When 80 middle school students from Billy L. Lauffer Middle School, a Title I school in southeast Tucson, hopped off the bus at the University of Arizona, it was not for an ordinary field…
Redefining Creativity in the Age of AI
Recently I received an invitation to speak at an upcoming global education summit in Beijing. The organizers asked me to give a presentation on the two topics that have dominated my work for the last 30 years: Project Based Learning…
Afrofuturism as Liberation and Design with Ingrid LaFleur
I recently visited the National Museum of African-American History and Culture In Washington, D.C. As I walked through the Afrofuturism exhibit, it was inspiring to see how out-of-this-world thinking has allowed Black visionaries to create new futures for Black children….
Community-Centered Research & Development in Education
By: Shannon Murtagh In 2021, deep in the midst of COVID, we surveyed Chief Innovation Officers (CIOs) working in public school districts across the country about the skills, core work, and mindsets that were most important to innovate for equity….
AI in Education: Leading a Paradigm Shift
By: Dr. Tyler Thigpen A buddy of mine, Paul, works for a major airline headquartered in Atlanta. The airline deploys him to examine new technologies. He assesses whether integrating them will improve plane flights and, if so, what the ripple…
Why We Need More New Schools (Even with Enrollments Down and Closures Ahead)
After a two-year investigation including hundreds of interviews, Kim Smith and Jen Holleran published a landscape of innovation in US K-12 education. What they found was a lot of confusion because there is not a single unified landscape. There are…
Here are our design principles. What do you think?
At Getting Smart, we partner with organizations that help collectively reach our mission of actively building the future of learning by designing, accelerating and amplifying equitable innovations that empower all people to thrive and lead in a complex world. Within…
Youth Design Day: Mapping Civic Learning Across Pittsburgh
By: History Co:Lab “What would a map of every opportunity in Pittsburgh where young people feel powerful and seen look like?” On June 25th, at the Civic Learning Ecosystem’s Youth Design Day, youth leaders, educators, civic organizers, and community members…
Help Us Shape the Future of Education: Vote for Our SXSW 2025 Sessions!
At Getting Smart, we are passionate about driving innovation in education. This year, we’ve submitted three exciting session proposals for SXSW 2025, and we need your support to bring these important conversations to the forefront. By voting for our sessions,…
5 easy steps for responsibly piloting AI and tech in education
By: Alice Waldron As educators, it can feel like a new AI tool is introduced daily and there is pressure to use new tools just to keep up with the times. What if, instead, we made technology decisions based on…
Fostering Student-Centered Environments: From Teacher Assessed through Grades to Self, Peer, Expert Feedback and Critique
Why do we award grades? Do they really improve learning? Research shows that in the short term, grades do indeed improve learning outcomes…on standardized tests. But when it comes to retaining information, thinking critically, recalling concepts later on, and applying…
Summit Stories: Lessons in Simplicity and Strength on Kilimanjaro
Summer is waning. Have you yet had the luxury to truly and entirely dedicate yourself to any one thing? If so, did you have the space to do so for eight consecutive days? I was fortunate to have the space….
Green Workforce Connect and Building Green Pathways with Cynthia Finley
Over the last few years, we’ve been covering New Pathways, which we think of as a framework for school leaders and community members to create supports and systems that set students up for success in what’s next. This might be…
The Women Building Community to Support Microschool Growth and Sustainability
By: Ayana Verdi Before the COVID pandemic magnified the vast inequities that exist within our education system and spurred an education renaissance that rapidly spread across the country, the quest to reimagine what school could be had already begun in…
To My Children: Letters From An Educator and Parent
By: Timothy Jones I’ve been blessed with many opportunities to speak as an educator and an innovator. I want to take this opportunity to speak as an educator but from the lens of a parent. As a parent of two…
How Many Teachers Can a Building Be?
By: Dan Coleman, Ph.D. By now, most educators are used to thinking of the school building as a “third teacher:” the term coined by Loris Malaguzzi in the 70’s to describe the role played by space in the Reggio Emilia…
Place-Based Learning Goes International: Lessons from Luxembourg
By: Nicole Assisi Stumbling upon place-based learning has become a recreational hazard during my summer travels. Two years ago, I found myself learning about internships on the Alaskan railroad. But this summer, I found myself wandering through a forest in…
Exploring New Pathways to Teaching Credentials with iteach
Teacher preparation is undergoing a significant transformation, offering new pathways for aspiring educators to enter the profession. As the education sector faces challenges such as teacher shortages and the need for more diverse and prepared educators, innovative solutions are emerging…
A Conversation with Auditi Chakravarty of AERDF on Education Research and Development Measuring Edtech’s Impact
I was recently at ISTE 2024 where I got the chance to sit down with Auditi Chakravarty, CEO of the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF). Auditi had just finished leading a session at ISTE, which focused on K-12…
Libraries as Community Learning Hubs: Connecting Students to Degrees and Opportunity
“I was told that I may lose my job unless I went back to school and got my high school diploma,” said Natalie Pinales, a resident of Durant, Oklahoma. As a young mom, Natalie had to forego completing high school…
Make AI Literacy a Priority With These Free Resources
We’re 18 months into the age of human-computer interaction, where reasoning engines, new forms of co-intelligence, are accessed through natural language. It’s clear that generative AI will reshape work and learning in ways we’re just beginning to understand. Announcements in…
Floating Microschools: Adaptive and Mobile Learning Environments
We’ve been thinking a lot about microschools across the United States over the last few years, and certainly, they’ve garnered a lot of media attention. Certain policy moves and philanthropic attention have increased opportunities to reimagine the microschools that exist…
Learning Environments Don’t Just Need Generative AI, They Need an AI Operating System
What would it look like to fully integrate AI into a learning environment? In the last few months, we’ve seen a surge of announcements about the vast potential of AI in applications. With Microsoft’s Co-Pilot and Apple’s Apple Intelligence, some…