New Pathways

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Two curious students press close to a glass enclosure, peering intently at an exhibit inside an ecosystem lab.

New Pathways

When Reality Meets Possibility: Inside the Ecosystem Lab

Students and instructors in lab coats working on robotics and electronics in a modern manufacturing workshop

Ed Policy

Making Work-Based Learning Work: Georgia’s Novel Approach to WBL Data

North Kansas City High School exterior showing modern addition alongside original historic brick building

Career & Technical Ed

New Grants Could Double Access to Career Academies

Career & Technical Ed

How to Leverage CTE for Durable, Personalized Pathways

Promotional graphic for a Getting Smart conversation with Sam Ford and Sangita Shresthova, featuring their headshots on a blue gradient background.

New Pathways

What Could BG Be? | A Conversation with Sam Ford and Sangita Shresthova

Corey Mohn smiling in a blue button-up shirt, featured in a "A Conversation With Corey Mohn" graphic on GettingSmart.com

New Pathways

What is CAPS? | A Conversation with Corey Mohn

Three teens playing video games together in a culturally decorated living room with snacks on a coffee table.

Leadership

How Can Indigenous Futurism Help Drive Innovation? | A Conversation with Kelly Berry

Four people collaborating around a laptop in a modern maker space, including a youth and adult mentors.

Career & Technical Ed

Confidence, Engagement, and Love: The Missing Alumni Data that Will Transform K-12

Two students studying coral specimens while video-calling a marine scientist on a laptop in a classroom setting.

Competency-Based Education

How Virtual and Hybrid Learning Helps Students Thrive: New Evidence from Five Public School Models

Four-panel education graphic showing Culture of Reflection, Explicit PoG Skills Instruction, Making Skills Public, and Parallel Pedagogy concepts

New Pathways

Norwalk Public Schools: Unpacking the Levers for Deeper PoG Implementation

Students and educators cut a ribbon at a "Real World Learning" virtual storefront grand opening ceremony

Leadership

Why Schools Should Leverage Their Local Chamber of Commerce: Building Economic Opportunity Through Local Partnerships

Leadership

Revitalizing Culture and Community at St. Labre | A Conversation with Curtis Yarlott

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EdTech

Why Learner Wallets Will Fail (And How to Make Sure They Don’t)

Students raising hands in a diverse high school classroom facing a presentation screen

Ed Policy

Stop Ignoring the Leaders Who Can Transform High Schools

Woman in blue blazer speaking at outdoor podium to diverse crowd in a futuristic neon-lit cityscape

New Pathways

Inaugural Address: A Rallying Cry for An Abundant Future

High school boy gesturing while speaking to classmates at desks, with papers and a water bottle on the table

Career & Technical Ed

Preparing Youth for Their Future: What Our Exploration of Durable Skills Across Twelve Innovative High Schools Tells Us About What Is Possible

New Pathways

So Others Might Eat (SOME) Poised to Take The Underserved Into The Ai Workforce

Diverse group of smiling teenagers with backpacks walking out of a brick school building together

EdTech

So you can “Finish School” in 2 Hours a Day, Then What?

Ed Policy

Proof Point, Pressure Point: Why Signals Will Make or Break What Comes Next

Three diverse students collaborate on a small robot at a futuristic library table surrounded by holographic displays

Green Schools

2040 is SO Not Boring! I’m 11 and Always Learning

New Pathways

Investing Today in Tomorrow’s Workforce: Michigan’s Strategy for STEM Talent

Promotional graphic for a Getting Smart conversation with Chris Green and Kaye Monk-Morgan on civic imagination.

Leadership

What is Civic Imagination and Why Do We Keep Proliferating Bad News? | A Conversation with Chris Green & Kaye Monk-Morgan

Mother and child snorkeling underwater together, both wearing diving masks, flashing OK and peace signs

Future of Work

Learning to Let Go (and Stay Connected): A Parent’s View from 2040

Leadership

Embedding Sustainability into Business Education | A Conversation with Dr. Julie Anderson

Leadership

Entrepreneurship: The New Core Curriculum

Handwritten mind map titled "Ideas Remembering My Why" with branches for podcasts, youth advisory boards, and inclusivity events.

Ed Policy

Problems Become Possibilities: The Power of Educator Incubators

New Pathways

A Textured View: How Stories Are The Currency of Badging

Learning Design

Charting a New Course for Education with Foresight

Children feeding greens to a horse through a fence at an outdoor farm, part of a hands-on learning experience in Memphis.

New Pathways

In Tennessee, a Memphis Mash Up Is Reimagining How Children Learn

Community members and students hold a green ribbon at a building ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating a new local initiative.

New Pathways

Future Plans is Supporting the Development of the Rural AI Workforce

New Pathways

Experiencing What’s Next: The Common Wealth of the Commonwealth

New Pathways

Student-Run, Student-Led Enterprises Addressing Current Educational, Economic Needs and Interests

High schoolers at Capital City Public Charter School work together to assemble a circuit kit in the school’s makerspace.

New Pathways

Preparing Rising Talent: How K–12 Can Unlock a Lifetime of Learning

Tyler ISD school bus with slogan "Prime Shipping on Tyler's Most Precious Cargo, Children

Leadership

Beyond the Classroom: Why Community Storytelling Will Decide the Future of Public Schools

New Pathways

“If They Would Just Listen”: What Students Are Teaching Us About Belonging and Voice

Leadership

3 Human Skills That Make You Irreplaceable in an AI World

Diverse group of young adults laughing and collaborating around a table with laptops and notebooks in a bright classroom

Career & Technical Ed

From Readiness to Relevance: 3 Ways to Transform Career Connected Learning

Adult instructor and two students in green shirts examining seaweed on a tropical beach during an outdoor science lesson.

New Pathways

Saying Goodbye to “One Teacher, One Classroom:” How New Models are Modernizing Teaching

Robert Bajor on the Disruption Continuum

Competency-Based Education

What’s the Status of Badges? A Mid-Year Check-In at The Badge Summit

Glacial lake reflecting snow-capped mountains and autumn forests in rural Montana wilderness

Future of Work

How Montana is Advancing Rural Workforce Solutions

Young woman with red hair interacts with a holographic display in a futuristic, plant-filled collaborative learning space.

New Pathways

What Did I Do “At School” Today? A Learner from 2040 Tells All

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Leadership

A Blueprint for Entrepreneurial Nonprofits Operating Inside Higher Education

Student pinning positive affirmation statements to a collaborative classroom wall display during a learning activity.

Green Schools

What Happens When You Trust Young People with Real Problems?

Students arranged in a large circle in a modern library space, holding papers during a collaborative discussion session.

Equity & Access

Reimagining School Starts with Reclaiming Time

Teacher reads to three young students seated on a classroom floor beneath an "I Love Reading" bulletin board.

New Pathways

Integrating Traditional Assessments into Non-Traditional Learning Environments

Laptop displaying Perplexity AI's search interface with "What do you want to know?" prompt on dark screen

Ed Policy

Why Institutions Must Fix Their Data Before AI Defines Them

Children holding artwork listen to an instructor in a bright Dallas community learning space

Leadership

In Dallas, a Big Thought is Brewing About How Cities Can Help Their Children Grow

One Stone's Disruption Blob framework showing five interconnected learning objectives: Mindset, Knowledge, Voice, Creativity, and Skills.

New Pathways

Beyond the Grade: How One Stone’s Growth Framework Empowers Learners for Life

Educators engaged in collaborative discussion at a table with a New York City skyline visible through floor-to-ceiling windows.

New Pathways

How Do You Build a Learner-Centered Ecosystem?

Students engaged in hands-on learning activities with educators, alongside text "Driving Progress, Creating Changemakers

New Pathways

Think & Make: Teen-Directed Innovation Training Scales in India

Melyssa Dominguez and Jennifer D. Klein, guests on the Getting Smart Podcast, smiling in circular portrait frames.

New Pathways

Generations of Making “the World the Way it Ought to Be” | A Conversation with Generations of Jeffco Open School

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Green Schools

Confronting Education: A Manifesto for a World in Transition

Students examine specimens outdoors on a blue tarp in a forest setting during a hands-on science field lesson.

Equity & Access

Resilience in Action: How Three Western NC Educators Are Reimagining Education After Disaster

Futuristic learner interacting with a holographic digital interface in a cyberpunk cityscape

New Pathways

We Asked A Student in 2040 What Living with An LER is Like—Here’s What She Said

Two students in scrubs practice taking blood pressure with a cuff and stethoscope during a hands-on health sciences class.

New Pathways

The Student-Led, Industry-Connected Learning: Voices from the CAPS Network

Five diverse young adults walking and laughing together on an urban sidewalk beside a brick building.

Ed Policy

From Clusters to Culture: Sustaining Readiness Through MAP(s)

Learner-Centered

In North Carolina, a Sea of Oxygen Bubbles — Spreading Across the State’s School Districts

Modern two-story learning facility beside a waterway, surrounded by native plantings and pedestrian pathways with visitors walking nearby.

New Pathways

Clusters in Action: Building Pathway Ecosystems That Work

Announcement graphic for The Public Microschool Playbook, Spring 2025, by Getting Smart, Learner-Centered Collaborative, and Transcend.

Learning Design

The Public Microschool Playbook: A New Actionable Guide for System Leaders

Students practicing medical simulation skills on a training mannequin in a healthcare CTE classroom lab.

Career & Technical Ed

The Reboot of Readiness: It’s Time to Take Action in Renovating CTE from the Ground Up

Center for Curriculum and Redesign: Education for the Age of AI https://curriculumredesign.org/frameworks/

Leadership

How Does Agency Shape Education? | A Conversation with Charles Fadel

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EdTech

AI Agents Are Coming to a Classroom Near You

Van Gogh-style painting of diverse learners collaborating around a table, surrounded by swirling ideas, books, and a glowing lightbulb

Equity & Access

Lifelong Learning as Abundant Learning

Illustrated urban green space with people gardening, walking, and tending plants amid city skyscrapers and a glowing idea bulb.

Learning Design

How can we reimagine where learning happens? Designing schools as community hubs within a personalized ecosystem

Illustrated smart city skyline with wireless signals, satellites, and communication icons connecting urban infrastructure

Competency-Based Education

The Transcript Trap: Why Our Students Need Credentials, Not Just Grades

Sixth-graders work together on a science project about weather disasters.

EdTech

How Can AI Fuel Deeper Learning? A Conversation with Kali Frederick and Aatash Parikh

Gilded Age mansion with beige stone facade, arched windows, and manicured lawn in Newport, Rhode Island

New Pathways

In the City by the Sea, a Civic Upswing is Underway

Woman in Pink Shirt Sitting by the Table While Smiling

EdTech

More Options, More Opportunities: How AI Can Support High-Quality Learning for All

Abstract image of abundance mindset in education

Future of Learning

Choosing Abundance Despite an Instinct for Scarcity: New Experiences and New Models

Two young students standing outside a school building, one holding a notebook, ready to learn.

Leadership

Tending Tomorrow’s Soil: Investing In Learning Ecosystems

Futuristic digital tunnel with streaming data, numbers, and glowing light streaks representing the flow of digital information

Leadership

What’s the Status of Credentials? Digital Credentials Summit 2025

Leadership

Building Systems That Serve: The Power of the Getting Smart Innovation Framework

A Black boy explores solar panels, nature tech, and data charts in three panels depicting future learning in Kentucky.

Equity & Access

Kentucky’s Learning Ecosystem in 2040: A Day in the Life

Career & Technical Ed

How Resilient are New Pathways in a Changing Labor Market?

Firefighter demonstrating a fire extinguisher to elementary students in a classroom career education visit.

Career & Technical Ed

From Classroom to Career: How Deeply Embedding Career Clusters Can Help Bridge the Gap

Diverse high school students working on computers and tablets in a vibrant, tech-filled collaborative learning environment

Career & Technical Ed

5 Most Versatile Certifications for High School Students

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Ed Policy

Getting H3 Right: Critical Recommendations for Funders and Policymakers

Students in uniform gather on stairs beside the Uplift Heights Healthcare Institute and Baylor Scott & White Health wall sign.

New Pathways

Uplift Education Launches Health Pathways

Learner-Centered

6 Characteristics of an Education that Students Want

Two students collaborating on a purple HP laptop in a school library with literary quotes on the windows.

New Pathways

Diving into the Evidence: Virtual and Hybrid Models as High-Quality School Choice Options

Leadership

5 Obstacles (and Solutions) to Transforming School Systems for the 21st Century

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Leadership

How AI is Changing Learning Goals

Students explore hands-on STEM activity with spinning art wheel, guided by an educator at an interactive learning event.

New Pathways

Empowering Futures by Turning Electives into Meaningful Career Pathways

Young people exploring ideas around a globe, with rockets, a compass, a lightbulb, and symbols of discovery and global learning.

New Pathways

The Flight School: Reimagining the Path to Adulthood

Three middle school girls collaborate on a project, sitting cross-legged on a library floor with open books and markers.

Network Effect

Your Public Library Is an Untapped Resource for Young Entrepreneurs

Student tending plants in a hydroponic growing system with purple LED lights in a classroom lab setting.

New Pathways

New Alternative Education Campus Works To Shift Student Learning Experiences

Diverse students engaged in hands-on STEM and creative learning activities in a bustling, collaborative classroom setting.

Learner-Centered

Shifting to an H3 Mindset Starts With Believing in the Power of Students

New Pathways

Beyond The Experience: HBCUs Are Growing and Making an Impact

Educators gathered around a conference table with laptops in a school library, engaged in collaborative discussion

Ed Policy

A New Era of Public Education: Potential Scenarios for the Next Presidential Administration

Illustrated school campus with students, a school bus, gears, growth charts, and lightbulbs symbolizing educational innovation

Leadership

Transforming Teaching in Ohio’s Largest School District

New Pathways

99 Problems: Why Time Spent Refining the Problem Space is a Critical Part of Entrepreneurial Mindset

Diverse educators and students collaborating in fields, labs, and communities across varied cultural backgrounds.

Difference Making

Catalyzing Educator & Student Agency through Community-Engaged Learning

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Ed Policy

New in 2025 and What Edleaders Should Do About It

Three arrows diverging in different directions, symbolizing student choice and multiple educational pathways.

New Pathways

Five Findings on How (and Whether) Schools Advise Students

New Pathways

The Rise of AI Agents: More Time for Real-World Learning or the Era of Cognitive Laziness?

Students walk around a city with their competencies visible and transferable.

Competency-Based Education

A New Infrastructure for Learning Credentials

Bronze deer statue overlooking the illuminated Columbus, Ohio skyline and Scioto River at night

Learning Design

In Ohio, A Capital City Starts to Connect Its Own Dots

Diverse community members collaborating—farming, sharing food, cycling, and handshaking—symbolizing interconnected civic partnership

Ed Policy

To Fully Realize Horizon Three, We Need New Accountability Systems

Students working on 3D design projects on iMac computers in a classroom decorated with film and TV posters.

New Pathways

Impact Projects at Northeastern University

Difference Making

Authentic Learning Experiences

Future of Learning

Educator Roles as a Catalyst for Transformation

Future of Learning

One Goal, Two Journeys: The Role of Community and Workforce in Defining Graduate

Career & Technical Ed

Empowering Students to Bridge the Gap Between High School and Career Success

Equity & Access

A New Operating System for Public Education: Learner-Centered Ecosystems

Nalukai Students sit and work on a real-world problem

Future of Learning

Let High Schoolers Do Less? Let High Schoolers Experience More

Competency-Based Education

First-Year Insights into Building a Truly Learner-Centered Approach with SparkNC

Future of Learning

Igniting the Flame: How Motivation Catalyzes Student Potential in Horizon 3 Education

Learning Design

The AI Revolution in Teaching: How It Changes Everything

Leadership

4 Promises Drive Rural School Transformation at Eastern Hancock Schools

Future of Learning

How We Lead the Change Is the Change: Horizon 3 Leadership

Competency-Based Education

Next-Generation Durable Skills Assessment

New Pathways

The Future of Accelerating Impact is Here: Reflections on The Global Impact Forum (TGIF) 2024

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EdTech

How Generative AI Can Enable & Accelerate H3 School Transformation

New Pathways

The Life of a Future-Ready School: Video Visits of Garden City School

Learning Design

Centering Learners by Design: Shaping the Future of Education

A group of students and educators work together to create a Portrait of a Graduate.

Competency-Based Education

Kindling the Spark: How the Portrait of a Graduate Becomes the Catalyst for Transformation

New Pathways

Educators discuss the state of creativity in an AI world

Competency-Based Education

What Should Young People Get Really Good At?

Leadership

The Next Horizon

Equity & Access

New Frontiers in Education: VELA Con 2024 Ushers in a New Era of Learning

New Pathways

The Time is Now for Revelatory Assessment

Career & Technical Ed

Amplifying Excellence in Career Education and Development

Students working collaboratively on real world problems.

Competency-Based Education

How to Design Schools to Grow Thriving Adults: A Provocation

New Pathways

Empowering Small Schools for Transformative Change

Students working in vertical and more traditional farms.

New Pathways

Our Past, Present, and Future

Students at Circleville City Schools (Ohio) take part in the district's first-ever student showcase highlighting their Portrait of a Graduate durable skills.

Leadership

How the ‘Portrait of a Graduate’ Infuses Student Learning with Joy and Hope

Equity & Access

Making Learning Relevant to Students’ Lives and Communities

Educators working on school concepts of the future

Learning Design

Why We Need More New Schools (Even with Enrollments Down and Closures Ahead)

Learning Design

Here are our design principles. What do you think?

Learning Design

Help Us Shape the Future of Education: Vote for Our SXSW 2025 Sessions!

Career & Technical Ed

Green Workforce Connect and Building Green Pathways with Cynthia Finley

Equity & Access

The Women Building Community to Support Microschool Growth and Sustainability

Career & Technical Ed

Exploring New Pathways to Teaching Credentials with iteach

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Equity & Access

To My Children: Letters From An Educator and Parent

Career & Technical Ed

Libraries as Community Learning Hubs: Connecting Students to Degrees and Opportunity

Career & Technical Ed

Learning Environments Don’t Just Need Generative AI, They Need an AI Operating System

Equity & Access

Jeffco Open School: A Journey of Six Learner-Designed Passages

Career & Technical Ed

Student Enterprise: Invite Learners to Launch a Media Agency or Publication

Career & Technical Ed

Career Pathways In A Rapidly Changing World: US Career Pathways Story

Ed Policy

6 Ways State Policymakers Can Build More Future-Focused Education Systems

EdTech

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence and the Implications for School Districts

New Pathways

Microschools Changing the Phoenix Education Landscape

New Pathways

Skills Transcripts at Scale: Why The ETS & MTC Partnership is a Big Deal

Career & Technical Ed

How to Start Investing in New Pathways

Learning Design

The State of the American High School in 2024

Learning Design

Small Schools, Big Umbrella: Expanding, Defining and Scaling the Microschool Ecosystem

Career & Technical Ed

Real World Learning in Chicagoland Pathways

Early Learning

Where Seldom is Heard a Discouraging Word: Farm-based Microschools

Leadership

Building Better Schools: The art of leading change in education

Equity & Access

	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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