Education resources are dwindling, enrollment is declining and disruptive influences—such as generative AI and shifting political leadership—are reshaping how schools operate.
Now is the time for collective leadership and systemic reform. We must build an education ecosystem that is effective, innovative and responsive to all learners’ diverse needs.
Encouragingly, the work of some of our nation’s boldest education leaders points the way forward with successes they’ve already enjoyed. By focusing on evidence-based instructional practices to meet urgent needs while planning for the future, they are proving that transformative change is possible.
Their success underscores the power of educators, philanthropists and community leaders collaborating toward shared, visionary goals.
Where we’ve been: Learning from Chicago
Consider Chicago, a powerful example of what’s possible through collective leadership.
Since the 1990s, Chicago’s high school graduation rate has climbed from 50% to well over 80%, with improvements—as well as higher ACT scores—across all demographic groups.
Third-to-eighth-grade students have shown remarkable academic growth. In 1989, Chicago students were learning 20% less than the national average; by 2010, they were learning 20% more.
These gains have transformed the lives of many students, particularly historically underserved Black and Latino students in Chicago Public Schools.
How did this transformation happen? Through a city-wide, multi-generational effort.
Tony Bryk’s How a City Learned to Improve Its Schools details the collective actions that reversed Chicago’s educational decline.
Partnerships with organizations like Teach for America and the Chicago Public Education Fund built a robust leadership pipeline. Research from the University of Chicago advanced understanding of the science of learning, while the Network for College Success adapted improvement science from healthcare to help high schools keep students on track.
This ecosystem of collaboration ensured that initiatives endured beyond individual leaders’ tenures, scaling systemic improvements across the district.
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Chicago is not an anomaly. Districts like Washington, D.C. and Boston, and states like Tennessee, have achieved dramatic improvements through sustained, coordinated leadership. Yet, incremental progress often goes unnoticed because we overlook the historical educational inequities being addressed.
Role of visionary collective leadership
Baltimore offers another example of the power of sustained leadership. Under Dr. Sonja Santelises’ nine-year tenure as CEO of Baltimore City Schools, literacy proficiency grew by 13.6%, outpacing Maryland’s growth by nearly 5 percentage points.
While she is the first to admit proficiency levels remain below where they need to be, her efforts to train leaders in the science of reading and implement deep policy supports in Maryland provide valuable lessons for others.
This is the work of addressing long-standing educational inequities, which disproportionately impact Black students. Once again, improving education is generational work. While demanding immediate results is reasonable, it’s equally important to recognize and celebrate significant progress and understand the historical barriers that persist.
Where we can go: Calls to action
To achieve transformative change, I propose several priorities:
- Fund cross-sector partnerships to replicate successful models.
- Invest in professional development to equip educators to teach durable skills like creativity, leadership and collaboration.
- Embrace AI-enhanced instructional strategies to strengthen teaching and engage students in real-world learning.
- Redesign the teaching profession to ensure sustainability, collaboration and impact.
America Achieves has collaborated with a coalition of business leaders to develop a collection of “durable skills”—competencies like creativity, leadership and collaboration—that will be crucial for economic opportunity. Their analysis of 80 million job postings showed that seven of the 10 most-requested competencies fall within this category.
Yet, these competencies are often overlooked in school accountability systems. Unsurprisingly, only 39% of high school students feel prepared for their next steps.
AI—the savior or end of us all (depending on who you ask and when you ask it)—offers opportunities to reimagine learning. For example, students at the Denver School of Science and Technology collaborated with Playlab, an AI incubator, to develop tools that helped Colorado residents register to vote in the 2024 election.
Such initiatives illustrate how AI can create learning experiences that are personally meaningful and relevant. To improve education, we must simultaneously reimagine student competencies and enhance our ability to accelerate system improvements.
Reimagining teaching
A bold vision for education must include a rethinking of the teaching profession.
Today, teacher morale is at a 50-year low, with only 14% of educators recommending their profession to others. Success in teaching is now rightfully akin to both heroism and defying gravity, as teachers grapple with political pressures and unsustainable demands.
To best educate our children, we need a genuine profession—one where the job is sustainable, dynamic and impactful—and where teachers lead the profession, work collaboratively and are sufficiently compensated.
The traditional one-teacher-to-one-classroom model is no longer viable, especially with increasingly diverse student needs. Innovative organizations like Next Education Workforce demonstrate that team teaching and strategic staffing can improve outcomes.
Meanwhile, AI can streamline administrative tasks, enhance differentiated instruction and change how teaching looks and feels. With intentional strategy and proper training, AI-supported practice can eventually allow teachers to focus more on teaching’s uniquely human aspects.
Quiet middle: Shared vision for education
Some argue that education reform is too polarized for progress. In reality, most Americans agree on the purpose of education. Recent surveys reveal that 80% of Americans share a common vision: schools should prepare students academically, equip them for economic opportunities, ensure their safety and health, foster character development and prepare them to lead our democracy.
This “quiet middle” of the population is waiting for us to exercise collective leadership and pursue these shared goals for our young people.
Hard work ahead
Education reform is one of the most complex and human endeavors. Success requires leaders committed to collective impact, focusing on immediate improvements and imagining a better future.
This work is challenging, but it is also essential. Future generations depend on us to deliver an education system that prepares them for the world they will inherit. As a nation, we’ve done, can do and must do hard things.
