Strategy: Research and Development

When: Strategy

Getting Smart Resources

Living in Beta: One Stone’s Pilot Results Are In

Living in Beta: One Stone’s Pilot Results Are In” is a resource from Getting Smart that examines real-world findings from One Stone, a student-led nonprofit and innovation lab in Boise, Idaho, that operates as a living prototype for reimagined learning. The resource details outcomes from One Stone’s pilot programs, offering practitioners and school leaders concrete data and qualitative insights into what happens when schools commit to student agency, design thinking, and iterative development as core organizational principles. Rather than presenting a theoretical framework, it grounds education transformation in documented pilot results, showing what worked, what evolved, and how a school can function as its own research and development engine. For leaders exploring innovation strategy, this resource matters because it models how to institutionalize a culture of experimentation and learning from evidence, rather than treating change as a one-time initiative.

Teaching A Big School New Tricks: The Huntley 158 Competency Pilot

This Getting Smart resource examines how Huntley Community School District 158, a large suburban district in Illinois, approached the complex challenge of shifting toward competency-based education through a structured pilot program. It details the district’s strategy for testing and refining competency-based practices within a traditional large-scale system, including how they designed the pilot, engaged staff, and built internal capacity for broader implementation. The resource offers practitioners and school leaders a grounded look at the research and development process behind systemic change, particularly the decisions, structures, and lessons that emerge when a big district attempts meaningful instructional transformation rather than surface-level reform. For leaders navigating similar transitions, it provides a realistic model of how to use pilots strategically to generate evidence, manage risk, and build the internal momentum needed to scale innovation across a complex organization.

The 5 Steps of Design Thinking Help Drive School Improvement

This Getting Smart resource outlines how the five-stage design thinking process—empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test—can be applied as a structured framework for school improvement and institutional R&D. It walks practitioners and school leaders through each stage with practical guidance on how to move from identifying real problems within their communities to developing and iterating on solutions before committing to full implementation. The resource positions design thinking not as a one-time exercise but as an ongoing strategic discipline that builds a culture of inquiry and innovation within schools. For education leaders seeking to move beyond reactive problem-solving, this framework offers a replicable, human-centered approach that grounds change efforts in the actual needs of students, staff, and communities rather than assumptions or top-down mandates.

Community-Centered Research and Development

Community-Centered Research and Development from Getting Smart is a resource that examines how schools and districts can embed research and development practices directly within their communities rather than importing solutions from outside. It offers frameworks and examples for engaging local stakeholders—students, families, educators, and community members—as active participants in identifying challenges and co-designing responsive educational approaches. The resource makes a case for shifting away from top-down innovation models toward iterative, place-based inquiry that reflects the actual needs and assets of specific communities. For practitioners and school leaders, this matters because it reframes R&D not as an abstract institutional function but as a relational, equity-oriented strategy that can generate more durable and contextually relevant change in schools.

Education Research and Development

Getting Smart’s Education Research and Development resource examines how schools and districts can build internal R&D capacity to drive meaningful, evidence-informed innovation rather than relying solely on external solutions. It explores frameworks, processes, and mindsets that enable educators and leaders to systematically test new approaches, learn from failure, and scale what works within their specific contexts. The resource draws on examples from forward-thinking schools and organizations to illustrate what structured experimentation looks like in practice. For practitioners and school leaders, this matters because embedding R&D into institutional culture shifts schools from passive consumers of reform to active architects of improvement, making innovation more sustainable, contextually relevant, and responsive to student needs.

Skills for the Future High School R&D Agenda

Carnegie, ETS
The Skills for the Future High School R&D Agenda is a strategic research and development framework developed by Carnegie and ETS that outlines a focused agenda for redesigning high school education to better prepare students for postsecondary success and an evolving workforce. The resource identifies priority areas for investigation and investment, including how schools can develop deeper competencies—such as critical thinking, collaboration, and adaptive problem-solving—that traditional academic measures often fail to capture or credential. It offers practitioners and school leaders a research-grounded roadmap for understanding where systemic gaps exist and where intentional innovation efforts are most needed. For those driving education transformation, this agenda matters because it moves beyond vague calls for 21st-century skills and instead provides a structured, evidence-oriented foundation for making decisions about curriculum, assessment, and institutional design at the high school level.

New Hampshire’s Performance Assessment of Competency Education

PACE (NH)
New Hampshire’s Performance Assessment of Competency Education (PACE) is a state-level initiative that replaces traditional standardized testing with locally developed performance assessments tied to competency-based progressions. The resource documents how New Hampshire partnered with a small cohort of districts to design and validate assessments that measure deeper learning outcomes—such as problem-solving, collaboration, and application of knowledge—rather than recall-based skills. It offers practitioners and school leaders a concrete model for how assessment systems can be redesigned at scale while maintaining accountability requirements, including how PACE secured a federal waiver to substitute its performance assessments for portions of standardized state testing. For educators pursuing competency-based or mastery-based learning transitions, PACE matters because it demonstrates that rigorous, locally owned assessment is both legally viable and practically achievable within public school systems, providing a replicable R&D framework for states and districts ready to move beyond test-and-rank accountability

	Beginning	Piloting	Implementing
From Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery	BeginningFrom Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery Beginning	PilotingFrom Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery Piloting	ImplementingFrom Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery Implementing
From One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning	BeginningFrom One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning Beginning	PilotingFrom One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning Piloting	ImplementingFrom One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning Implementing
From Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry	BeginningFrom Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry Beginning	PilotingFrom Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry Piloting	ImplementingFrom Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry Implementing
From Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning	BeginningFrom Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning Beginning	PilotingFrom Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning Piloting	ImplementingFrom Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning Implementing
From Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities	BeginningFrom Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities Beginning	PilotingFrom Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities Piloting	ImplementingFrom Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities Implementing
From Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment	BeginningFrom Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment Beginning	PilotingFrom Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment Piloting	ImplementingFrom Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment Implementing
From Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets	BeginningFrom Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets Beginning	PilotingFrom Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets Piloting	ImplementingFrom Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets Implementing

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