Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Last month, nearly 3,000 leaders from more than 130 countries gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss the forces reshaping our world. Geopolitics, Artificial Intelligence and economic uncertainty dominated the main stage. Yet amid all the conversations about the future, we heard little about one of the most powerful engines for long-term prosperity in human society—education.
The fundamental question about whether our schools are moving quickly enough to meet the demands of work and citizenship were largely absent at the event. The good news is that a growing number of school systems across the United States aren’t waiting for change from above.
This month, we recognize California's CORE Districts’ Breakthrough Success Community and Hemet Unified School District, and Liberty Public Schools in Missouri, as recipients of the Carnegie Award for Impact. Each of these systems demonstrates what’s possible when student success and real-world relevance anchor the design of high school.
Through the “Breakthrough Success Community initiative,” the CORE Districts have helped systems across California significantly improve student success among ninth-graders—a pivotal year and key determinant of whether students complete high school. The result was a 24 percent increase in the number of students on track to graduate and pursue a wide array of work and postsecondary opportunities.
California’s Hemet Unified School District has reimagined its approach to preparing students for life after high school. The district expanded and strengthened Career Technical Education (CTE) pathways and redesigned student experiences to accelerate college and career readiness. The results speak for themselves. Since 2022, CTE pathway completion has risen by 15 percent, and the proportion of students meeting the California College and Career benchmark has also increased by 15 percent.
Finally, an important, unusual story is playing out in Liberty Public Schools. District leaders have made authentic, applied learning an expectation for every student rather than just an option for some. In 2021, 42 percent of Liberty graduates took part in real-world learning experiences to earn a “market value asset.” Remarkably, that number reached 100 percent by 2025.
At a moment when the future of work commands global attention, these educators offer us a critical reminder. The conversations shaping tomorrow’s workforce often happen far from the stages of Davos and long before debates about AI, talent shortages or economic forecasts. They begin in classrooms and schoolhouses in all corners of the nation, and are led by courageous educators who are not waiting for the world to change.
In partnership,
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