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Focus Area:
Innovation and the Future of Learning

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.

  • Research Reports    

New England Profiles of Innovation | Great Oaks Charter School Bridgeport

Emnet Shibre, Katrina Woodworth

Great Oaks Charter School Bridgeport in Connecticut offers an example of a high dosage tutoring model that has been refined and adapted to meet local needs.

  • Research Reports    

New England Profiles of Innovation | Holyoke High School

Cara Pangelinan

Despite pandemic-induced challenges, Holyoke school leaders and staff kept student engagement at the forefront of their efforts to ensure continuity of learning.

  • The Lens    

Shrink the cereal box—but not the school week

Paul Hill

As health and safety concerns recede, districts are under pressure to provide fewer days and hours of student-teacher contact than before the pandemic.

  • The Lens    

The COVID crisis cracked our education system. A new reform coalition must come together to fix it in the interest of children

Robin Lake

This piece originally appeared in The 74. Anyone who cares about kids must rejoice over their being back in school with their peers.

  • The Lens    
Emnet Shibre, Katrina Woodworth

In 2020–21, many teachers, despite all of their struggles, saw a surge of collaboration and coordination.

We spoke with teachers and administrators in three New England districts with large numbers of multilingual learners about how the pandemic influenced student learning and teaching practice last year.

  • The Lens    

These 232 innovative schools are challenging old assumptions about education

Chelsea Waite

A diverse array of communities are working to reinvent schooling in pursuit of their visions for thriving young people and families.

  • Research Reports    

COVID–19 Showed Us How Important It Is to Focus on Adolescent Well-Being: Here is What School Systems Should Do

Georgia Heyward, Heather Casimere, Ashley Jochim

States and districts should be using this moment as an opportunity to reassess how they support adolescents and their families.

  • The Lens    

What schools can learn from learning pods about supporting effective teacher-student relationships

Lisa Chu

When schools closed down last spring, some parents and educators responded by forming “pandemic pods,” or small groups of students who came together outside of school to learn during the pandemic.

  • The Lens    

Pandemic learning pod instructors loved teaching, but don’t want to be traditional classroom teachers

Steven Weiner

Samantha* had been a veteran educator for fourteen years, first as a classroom teacher and then a principal, when the pandemic shut down schools.

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