Two Connected Paths for School Districts to Thrive in an Era of Enrollment Decline and Heightened Competition
America’s school districts are serving a shrinking share of a shrinking market. The K–12 population is declining overall, families are leaving high-cost cities, homeschooling has expanded since the pandemic, private school enrollment has rebounded, and charter school enrollment continues to grow. Over the past six years, district schools have lost nearly two million students nationwide, […]
Reimagining Learning for the Age of AI: Visions from CRPE’s Think Forward Fellows
Will AI reinforce existing models of schooling, or will it help us build learning environments that center purpose, relationships, and real-world contributions? This is the question that our inaugural cohort of Think Forward AI Fellows explore in this compendium. Conversations about AI often center on details like tools and workflows rather than major concerns like ends […]
Precision Learning Has the Potential to Do What Personalized Learning Could Not
Driving past Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, I noticed a billboard that reads something like, “We treat your cancer like it’s YOUR cancer.” The message is more than a slogan. It captures a growing conviction that generic approaches are no match for serious threats to human health. What distinguishes places like Fred Hutch […]
States and AI: An Early Look at How Early Adopters Are Approaching AI in Education
As AI use expands in schools, states are beginning to define their role—often without clear federal direction. What actions are they taking, and how are they approaching AI integration in K–12 education? CRPE’s new State AI Early Adopter Database compiles publicly available information on AI-related actions across 20 early adopter states in 2024 and 2025, including guidance, […]
Special Education Identification: What We Learned from the Unlocking Potential Data Sprint
Fifty years ago, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) promised to bridge the gap between what students with disabilities need and what the public education system was designed to provide. Today, that bridge is at risk of collapse as ever-larger shares of students are identified with disabilities, only to languish without access to the […]
Special Education Is Broken. Our New Database Can Help Spark Way to Fix It
Advocates who have fought hard battles to preserve the right of children with disabilities to attend public schools have never faced a fight like this one. Last month’s cuts to the Office for Special Education Programs, which all but eliminated the agency charged with enforcing schools’ civil rights obligations, fly in the face of decades […]
The “Big Blur”: A Renewed Call to Merge High School, College, and Career
Imagine a world where every high school junior has walked a factory floor, sat in a boardroom, taken college courses, and earned credentials valued by employers before graduation. Even before they’re legal adults, these students will have cracked open the door to a career by blurring the lines between school and work. While this might […]
The Debate over AI in Education Is Stuck. Let’s Move It Forward in Responsible Ways That Truly Serve Students
Artificial intelligence is already reshaping how we work, communicate, and create. In education, however, the conversation is stuck. Sensational headlines make it seem like AI will either save public education (“AI will magically give teachers back hours in their day!”) or destroy it completely (“Students only use AI to cheat!” “AI will replace teachers!”). These […]
Think Forward: Building a Coherent Approach to AI in Education
In November 2025, the Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) convened a diverse group of policymakers, system leaders, educators, researchers, funders, and technology experts for the Think Forward: Learning with AI Forum in New Mexico. At a moment when rapid advances in artificial intelligence are colliding with longstanding inequities and structural challenges in K–12 education, […]
Smartphones and Absenteeism are Noisy Problems, but the Quiet Crisis in Math Is Instruction
Everyone needs foundational math skills. Numeracy predicts higher earnings, better health, and increased access to fast-growing jobs. Algebra is the gateway to advanced math and to many college and workforce programs. Yet America has a math problem—and it didn’t start with Covid. After two decades of gains, national math performance peaked around 2013 and has […]