The start of a new year is always a moment for reflection, but 2026 leaves little room for pause. This is not a year for incrementalism or hoping someone else will lead. It is a year that demands decisive action.
In education, responsibility for student success has shifted: the federal government has abandoned many of its traditional oversight roles and mandates, and states are now in the driver’s seat. That shift creates real risk. Federal coherence and guardrails matter. But it also removes a familiar excuse for states that have eschewed leadership for compliance. States now have both the authority and the responsibility to act. The NAEP scores released in 2025 should have been a wake-up call, but I fear they were not.
The question in 2026 is not whether states can lead, but whether they will.
States that want to raise achievement and prepare young people for a far more uncertain future will need to think beyond small fixes. Leadership now means setting clear goals for student learning, aligning policy and incentives to those goals, and being willing to change course when evidence says something is not working. It also means acknowledging that avoiding hard choices is itself a choice, and one students usually pay for.
This year must mark a turning point for education leaders: generative AI is no longer an emerging technology—it is a foundational force reshaping society and the future students will inherit. The pace of change is only accelerating. In the here and now, AI cannot be an afterthought for education leaders. Instead, it must be front and center in legislative agendas and policy decisions.
The central challenge is not whether schools will use AI, but whether states will govern its use to strengthen learning rather than fragment it. 2026 will require nuanced policy that puts sensible guardrails in place while also helping schools adapt to a world where jobs, skill demands, and pathways are far less predictable than they once were.
State and system leaders have a critical role to play. They need to help school leaders make sense of a crowded and confusing AI landscape, clarify which tools and uses are grounded in learning science, and send clearer signals to the market about what outcomes matter and what evidence will be expected. Realizing this potential will require discipline, design, and a willingness to rethink longstanding assumptions.
Students need sharp critical thinking skills, sound judgment, a strong foundation of knowledge in core subjects like history, math, and reading, and, perhaps most importantly, the ability to learn and adapt over time. Other countries are moving quickly to align education systems with the new reality AI presents. The United States cannot assume it will remain competitive by default.
The real opportunity goes well beyond tools. AI has the potential to support whole school models that individualize instruction with rigor and allow systems to deploy teacher talent in more effective and sustainable ways.
Leadership in this moment is not just about power. It is about capacity and courage. Many state education agencies were designed to manage compliance, not to shape markets, redesign systems, or drive continuous improvement at scale. If states are serious about leading, then they will modernize how they govern education by investing in talent, building new capabilities, and being much more direct about the results they expect. Some states are beginning to do this. Most are not. And students are paying the price for inaction.
This work will generate conflict. Structural reforms, from teacher preparation and pensions to responsible school choice, always do. Governing through that conflict, rather than around it, is what leadership looks like now.
After years of disruption, it is understandable that many leaders feel exhausted. But the costs of waiting are rising, and the risk of not taking action at all is now far more consequential than taking the wrong action.
Over the past year, CRPE has focused on helping leaders move from aspiration to action. Through our Phoenix Rising series, we laid out a set of ideas for a new reform agenda grounded in both the reality of today’s education systems and the demands of tomorrow. In 2026, we will continue to develop this work and spend more time with states and local leaders who are ready to implement it.
That means taking on issues that have lingered far too long. States that want to raise achievement at scale cannot avoid hard conversations about teacher preparation, the design and governance of school choice, pension obligations that crowd out investments in students, and accountability and funding systems that no longer match how schooling actually happens. These are not easy problems to address. They are also unignorable.
None of this will happen on its own. With greater authority comes greater responsibility. Leadership in 2026 will come from those willing to set priorities, make tradeoffs, and take ownership of results.
Those in official state leadership roles are critical, but leadership can come from advocates, educators, as well as students and their families. We at CRPE continue to be inspired and learn from forward-thinking educators, as well as from pioneering schools and districts making bold moves to transform what students’ experience and what opportunities they access. Ground-level innovators can push state leaders and give them cover to act. We remain optimistic because we see leaders who are ready to do this work. Our role is to surface hard truths, develop evidence-based ideas, and work alongside states and local leaders to turn ambition into action.
In 2026, CRPE will focus on student outcomes, advance bold reform agendas through Phoenix Rising and partnerships in the field, build a practical roadmap for responsible AI, and push states to lead strategically and coherently for meaningful gains in learning. We hope others will join us on this path and think forward, through 2026 and into the future.
