• Home
  • I
  • Innovation and the Future of Learning

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.

  • The Lens    

Intergenerational Learning: Proven Benefits for Both Elders and Youth

Adam Barton, Gloria Lee

Inevitable demographic shifts are about to create a fast-growing population of skilled older workers: in a decade, adults over age 65 will outnumber children under age 18.

  • The Lens    

Near-Peer Mentors: Learner Guides Model Success, Improve Outcomes for Younger Students

Adam Barton, Gloria Lee

In the U.S. and around the world, young people in the wake of the pandemic are struggling with depression, anxiety, stress and other mental health challenges, and schools are often unable to find enough counselors and support staff.

  • The Lens    

Peer Pressure, for a Purpose: Cooperative Learning in Brazil

Adam Barton, Gloria Lee

An unconventional approach Professor Manoel Andrade Neto anxiously scanned the list of students admitted to Brazil’s Federal University of Ceará. He hoped that one student, Toinho, had been prepared enough to qualify.

  • Research Reports    

The State of the American Student — 2023

Robin Lake
  • The Lens    

Innovation Spotlights: Case Studies in High School Redesign

Chelsea Waite, Cara Pangelinan, Lisa Chu, Naureen Madhani, Heather Casimere

Educators nationwide are forging their way in a landscape rocked by pandemic-induced disruptions. Training resources designed to spark new thinking among school staff often feel outdated—especially if they were published before 2020.

  • The Lens    

Low Cost, Big Gains: Family Phone Tutoring Targets Learning Loss

Adam Barton, Gloria Lee

The work of post-pandemic learning recovery will take many years. As researchers Tom Kane and Sean Reardon noted in an opinion piece in The New York Times: “Especially in the hardest-hit communities, it is increasingly obvious that many students will not have caught up before the federal money runs out in 2024.” Schools are hungry for cost-effective strategies that can help students accelerate mastering foundational academic skills.

  • The Lens    

Beyond Finland: Public School Solutions from Around the Globe

Adam Barton, Gloria Lee

As Americans, we love innovation and we’re good at it. We pride ourselves on ingenuity. We celebrate inventors. We are, generally, more tolerant of failure than other countries.

  • The Lens    

Unconventional Private Schools Attract Parents with Tailored Offerings—Public Schools Can, Too

Chelsea Waite

Small learning environments that operate outside public schools—such as microschools, hybrid homeschools, and learning pods—exploded into broad public consciousness during the pandemic.

  • Research Reports    

Innovation in New England

Cara Pangelinan, Chelsea Waite, Christine Pitts, Sarah McCann, Heather Casimere

CRPE partnered with The BARR Foundation to map the New England region’s landscape of learning.

  • The Lens    

Teachers Want to Innovate—Schools that Don’t Let Them are Losing Out

Chelsea Waite

This piece was originally published in The 74. Waite: Education entrepreneurs are taking their creativity and ingenuity to hybrid schools and microschools — and taking their students with them At the end of April, I attended a conference in Atlanta featuring a small but heterogenous group of self-described education entrepreneurs.

Skip to content