At CRPE, we study how public education can evolve to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing world. Our research on innovation and the future of learning examines how schools are rethinking teaching and learning models—from personalized and competency-based approaches to the use of technology and AI—to better prepare students for life beyond school. We investigate how these innovations take shape in real contexts, what barriers and enablers schools encounter, and how systems can support sustainable change. Across this work, we aim to understand how schools and communities can design learning environments that are more equitable, adaptable, and responsive to the diverse needs of students.
The traditional American classroom has looked the same for a century: one teacher, one room, one roster. Critics have long argued that this model leaves teachers isolated, overburdened, and with limited opportunities for specialization, collaboration, or career growth.
School districts are struggling to create both equitable and fundamentally different outcomes for young people through incremental improvements. The alternative is transformational systems change, when school districts redefine their purpose and operations through a coherent strategy to ensure every school is a high-quality, empowering place for all students to thrive—but this remains rare.
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.
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.
