The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

09/04/2026

Yesterday, the Carnegie Foundation and College Board gathered in New York for a full day of work on one of the most overlooked challenges in education: how we recruit, prepare and support the teachers who make career-connected learning possible for students.

As part of the Reimagining Certification Coalition, states came ready. We heard the honest, behind-the-scenes stories of how state coalition members from Indiana, North Carolina and Washington are innovating around certification pathways, gained insight from leaders across Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas, and saw up close what a College Board and Indiana cybersecurity partnership looks like in practice.

Thank you to College Board, Foundation for Excellence in Education and every state team in the room for the energy, ambition and shared momentum to create impact together.

09/02/2026

Monroe Central School Corporation, Randolph Central School Corporation and Randolph Eastern School Corporation — three rural districts in East Central, Indiana — decided that what none of them could build alone, they could build together.

Through RAZ-32 (Rural Alliance Zone-32), schools share instructors, facilities, and career pathways across district lines, allowing students in one town to train in precision machining, health science, or welding at a neighboring high school. In just two years, shared enrollment more than tripled, and 82% of first-year Health Science students earned a Certified Medical Assistant credential.

RAZ-32's Integrated Pathways connect high school, college, and career for students who'd otherwise lack access to in-demand training, so every student can move toward a meaningful future, no matter the size of their school.

08/25/2026

The Carnegie Foundation works alongside educators, researchers, and district, state and institutional leaders to transform American high schools and postsecondary education. Much of what we learn along the way is worth sharing.

Each month, our newsletter shares news of Carnegie's core work and highlights opportunities for collaboration and connection: what we're learning, who we're learning it from, and what still needs to be understood. If you want to follow along, we'd welcome you.

Sign up here to receive future issues: https://na2.hubs.ly/H07qv8y0

08/19/2026

For more than a century, the tools we've used to summarize what students know — from GPA to class ranking — were built to sort and rank, not to show how capable young people truly are. Three systems in our Future of High School Network with XQ Institute are working to rewrite that record (https://cfdn.at/3Sh2rCo).

In rural Pennsylvania, California Area School District's "Village Transcript" invites teachers, employers, and community members to document a student's skills wherever learning happens. At Grand Rapids Public Museum School in Michigan, a teacher-built platform turns a learning history into a navigable story, organized around competencies rather than courses and credits. And in Piper USD 203 in Kansas, every student now defends what they've learned before a panel of industry judges in a senior capstone.

We're proud to share their work in our latest Future of High School Innovation story. Read it here: https://cfdn.at/3Sh2rCo

08/11/2026

As our Opportunity Colleges and Universities (OCU) Profile series reaches its final few stories, we want to revisit the original principles today: why do OCUs matter? Higher education remains one of our most powerful engines of mobility, health and civic life — yet public confidence has fallen sharply. So, we stopped asking which institutions are most prestigious, and started asking which ones deliver real opportunity.

That question led us to 478 institutions of every size, type and region that pair high access with competitive earnings. But it doesn't have to stop at 478. It's a call to action and an open invitation for postsecondary institutions to place student success at the heart of every decision.

Read our full take:

A new designation within the Carnegie Classifications — long viewed as the nation’s gold standard for organizing the postsecondary sector ... Read more

08/06/2026

The University of West Alabama is the latest institution featured in our Opportunity Colleges and Universities (OCU) Profile Series with ACE.

For nearly two centuries, UWA has sat in the heart of one of America's most economically isolated communities. But here, access isn't an aspiration — it's architecture. The university has held tuition flat for nine consecutive years, serves a majority Pell-eligible student body, and enrolls 70% more students from underrepresented backgrounds than is typical for an institution its size.

And it works: eight years after enrolling, UWA graduates earn 62% more than the regional economy would predict.

Read the full story and pass it on: https://cfdn.at/3THsiUv

08/05/2026

At Liberty Public Schools, part of the Carnegie and XQ Future of High School Network, transformation started with a microschool called Edge, a sandbox to test real-world, competency-based learning before scaling what worked across the district.

On the latest Getting Smart podcast, Liberty's Julie Moore and Sara Wickham share how they did it, and why all 12,000 students, not just the 100 in Edge, deserve this kind of learning experience.

Listen now:

Explore how Liberty Public Schools is transforming education with market value assets for students that enhance their future.

08/03/2026

Through RAZ-32, a member of our Future of High School Network with XQ Institute, neighboring districts in rural Indiana share classes and instructors, so students can cross district lines for career-focused coursework that no single campus could offer alone.

The results? In year one, 92% of students completed a career pathway — and enrollment grew 74% the next year. We're thrilled to see that small budgets and school sizes aren't barriers to big opportunity when districts work together.

Read the full story:

Adams: A regional alliance allows students to cross school district lines for specialized career and technical education coursework.

07/31/2026

Piper USD 203 rebuilt its system by creating six career academies spanning 25 industry sectors, enrolling students in a career-connected pathway from ninth grade, and integrating work-based learning into the model rather than offered alongside it. This year, that new architecture placed 211 seniors in individualized work-based learning roles across the Kansas City region.

The structure carries through to graduation when every senior defends the district's graduate competencies before panels of educators and industry judges.

As a member of the Carnegie Foundation and XQ Future of High School Network, Piper USD 203 is turning that architecture into lessons the entire field can build on.

07/30/2026

This month's newsletter wrestles with what AI changes about the purpose of school — and why developing the skills machines can't replace has to become a main outcome of schooling, not a byproduct.

Beyond this month's feature, we've rounded up recommended reads and our latest Future of High School Innovation story, Measuring Skills That Matter, featuring three school districts making durable skills a priority. Dive into the full issue:

Every transformative technology arrives with a prophecy. The railroad would collapse geography. The printing press would shatter the monopoly of the learned. The internet would democratize knowledge. Each of those technologies did reshape the world — just not in the ways, nor at the speed, that th...