The Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education are launching a national series to highlight a cross-section of Opportunity Colleges and Universities (OCUs) to share their inspiring stories and the practices they have underway to advance student success. Through this series, we uncover some of the leadership decisions and practices at OCUs that are driving economic opportunity for their students. We hope these stories are useful for a wide range of stakeholders, as we work for broader access and stronger outcomes for students nationwide. We begin the series with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC).

As both an R1 research institution and an OCU, UIC demonstrates that world-class research, broad access and long-term student success can go hand-in-hand. At UIC, Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda and her faculty are focused on providing the highest levels of educational and research excellence to the communities they serve.

Currently, 478 institutions across the country—serving 2.75 million students—have been identified by the Carnegie Classifications as Opportunity Colleges and Universities. These schools serve as powerful drivers of the American Dream, demonstrating that broad access and strong student outcomes can coexist at a wide range of institutions, from large, urban research universities to rural and community colleges. The OCU designation is part of the new Student Access & Earnings Classification (SAEC) we introduced last year, which measures student success by how well an institution reflects its community and how effectively it positions students for competitive earnings. To achieve OCU status, an institution must meet a dual threshold: providing both strong student access for the communities it serves and ensuring competitive earnings for its students.

Read the full University of Illinois Chicago profile to learn more about the strategies and leadership driving student success—and share it with your networks to help amplify what’s working across higher education.

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With nearly two decades of experience in New York City Public Schools, as a teacher, principal, deputy superintendent, and superintendent, Dr. Cheng has centered his leadership on strengthening instructional quality and expanding postsecondary pathways aligned with evolving graduation expectations, college, careers, and engaged civic life. In this Q&A, Dr. Cheng reflects on the opportunity to design high school learning environments that are rigorous, engaging and genuinely prepare students for success after graduation. He discusses how his district is building a culture of belonging, embedding project-based learning, participating in national conversations about the high school transcript, and aligning K–12 with higher education and workforce demands.

As part of the Future of High School Network, an effort uniting 24 systems across the country to build the evidence and implementation needed for a new architecture for high school, Dr. Cheng and his team help demonstrate what is possible when competency-based learning becomes embedded within large, diverse public systems. 

What current conditions and demonstrations of demand lead you to believe that the moment for high school transformation is now?

I’ve spent my entire career in New York City Public Schools, and I’ve never been more hopeful than I am now. As a first-generation immigrant who arrived in this country not speaking English and not always feeling a sense of belonging, I’ve long felt compelled to ask: What can we do to ensure that young people don’t have that same experience in our schools?

The world is changing quickly. When we talk to employers—from Mount Sinai Hospital to Chase, JetBlue, and faculty at CUNY and SUNY—we hear a consistent message. Yes, students need strong content knowledge and literacy skills. But the premium today is on human skills: the ability to adapt, collaborate, communicate clearly, and work effectively with others.

These are the same skills named in New York State’s Portrait of a Graduate. That framework provides clarity about what we should be working toward and ensures those competencies are not treated as “extras.” We have to design learning environments where those human skills are intentionally cultivated and assessed. 

The future is already alive in many of our classrooms. The opportunity now is to continue aligning our broader ecosystem around what many classrooms are already demonstrating.

What is unique about your district within New York City Public Schools?

Just last week, I was in a high school science classroom in Queens. A group of students was preparing scientific experiments, sorting note cards in English, Spanish, and Bengali. An eleventh grader who had recently arrived in the country presented her research to a panel of community experts. She pulled up water quality results from samples she collected near an old landfill and walked the panel through her analysis. She listened carefully to their questions, paused, reconsidered her reasoning, revised her hypothesis in real time, and tried again.

What struck me most was that this wasn’t unusual. We see this level of engagement across our schools.

Our district includes 51 high schools and more than 22,000 students. Every week, students participate in apprenticeships, learn outside the classroom, and complete portfolios to demonstrate mastery. They engage deeply with ideas and articulate their thinking publicly.

We see students interviewing neighbors about housing policy. We see multilingual learners building arguments across multiple languages. Many students learn Spanish because it has become the lingua franca in our schools—even if it’s not their home language. And all of this is happening within New York City Public Schools.

How did this become the norm for students in your district?

Our district is a network of mission-aligned schools. This didn’t happen by accident.

For years, this kind of learning existed in small, boutique settings. About twelve years ago, a group of school leaders came together to ensure this wouldn’t be a “this too shall pass” moment. Six strong networks aligned around a shared vision for deeper learning.

Over the past seven years, I’ve been a part of this work. We’ve begun documenting and codifying the core practices that are now consistent across our schools. A few key components:

• Build belonging. In some schools, eleventh graders take a course on the history of U.S. education and then critique their own school’s curriculum. They propose new courses, research and design syllabi, vote on which classes should be offered, recruit a teacher, and then serve as teaching assistants the following year. The result is often the most relevant and popular courses in the building. More importantly, students see themselves not as passengers, but as architects of their educational journeys.
• Learn through projects. Students need context and relevance. In our civics and U.S. government courses, learning is grounded in youth-led community research. For example, students studying water quality at the Gowanus Canal gather and analyze data, invite community members to discuss implications, and present recommendations to city council members. These public demonstrations of learning are central to how students build confidence and key communication skills.
• Reimagine the transcript. We’re participating in national conversations exploring how learner records might better articulate skills and competencies. , These transcripts could offer a far more compelling picture of what students know and can do.

How are you thinking about teacher preparation and measuring student success in your district?

We’re working closely with higher education partners to design teacher prep pathways. For example, I recently spoke with President Frank Wu at Queens College about strengthening multilingual residency pathways. We’ve also partnered with Brooklyn College to design a principal licensure and district leadership program tailored to our schools. Our principals and district leaders serve as adjunct faculty, and residents train directly within our schools. We are co-creating preparation programs aligned with the kind of learning we want to see.

At the same time, we need to shine a spotlight on this work and study it rigorously.

Michelle Fine at CUNY conducted longitudinal research comparing graduates of consortium schools (like those in my district)—many of whom did not focus on SAT preparation because their schools emphasized projects and performance assessments—with similar peers. She tracked outcomes over multiple years and found that consortium graduates earned higher GPAs in their first semester of college, had higher pass rates, greater participation in office hours, stronger persistence at 18 months, and higher levels of engagement. Even when college systems weren’t fully designed for them, these students thrived because of the analysis, communication, and critical thinking skills they developed in high school.

How are you thinking about workforce preparation in the age of AI? 

A critical starting point is recognizing schools as one of the last local civic squares—places where young people from different backgrounds come together to learn with and from one another. That social and cultural dimension of schooling will only become more important in an AI-driven world.

At the same time, we’re actively engaging with AI. Through a design fellows program, we meet every two weeks with teachers, paraprofessionals, and parent coordinators who are building AI tools tailored to their classrooms and communities. We’re also working with entire schools to rethink instruction in light of what AI now makes possible. Next, we’re asking: What could students do with these tools? This work aligns with broader NYC Public Schools guidance around responsible AI use and instructional innovation.

What are the challenges and barriers that stand in the way of redesigning the American high school?

First, I want to name that the barriers are not students. It’s often the structures wrapped around them. 

Many of our structures were designed for a different era, and we’re learning how to adapt them to today’s realities. High schools, colleges, and employers still send different signals about what matters. Too many people believe deeper learning only works in selective settings, even though we see it thriving in large, diverse public schools, like those in my district. The practical constraints are real: old assessment systems, staffing models, and accountability rules that reward coverage instead of understanding. This isn’t about blame. It’s the design we inherited.

What we need now is connective tissue—clearer signals, better assessments, learner records that show what students can actually do, and space for districts to learn and iterate. More and more, our students graduate with the skills colleges say they value. We need stronger alignment across admissions, placement, and credentialing so authentic evidence of thinking carries weight.

New York is uniquely positioned because K–12, CUNY, SUNY, and our cultural institutions operate within the same ecosystem. Deeper learning in high school works best when higher education reinforces it. And when that alignment happens, colleges benefit: students arrive more confident, prepared, and ready to persist.

What advice would you give to other district leaders, policymakers, and partners across the country to advance education transformation at scale?

First, continue investing in the infrastructure that allows strong models to scale responsibly. Models matter, but the levers that move systems are shared assessments, learner records, common language, and clearer signals from higher education. Second, support districts as research and development engines, rather than just implementers. Third, shape the public narrative so people understand that deeper learning is happening in large public systems and not just niche environments. Fourth, bring higher education into the redesign process early.

And finally, stay close to practitioners. The expertise we need already exists in classrooms serving multilingual learners, newcomers, and students with a wide range of needs. We simply need to tap into that collective wisdom to build the education system our young people deserve.

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At SXSW EDU 2026, Timothy Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, joined Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, to discuss a pivotal shift in how we understand institutional excellence in higher education.

For more than 50 years, the Carnegie Classifications has served as the nation’s gold standard for organizing postsecondary institutions. At SXSW EDU, Knowles and Mitchell reflected on that legacy while outlining a bold evolution for the future.

They described how the Carnegie Classifications are moving beyond traditional indicators like prestige, student selectivity, and degrees awarded. Instead, the new Student Access and Earnings Classification surfaces more urgent and meaningful reflections on how well are institutions setting their students up for success in the real world.

This reimagined approach evaluates institutions using two critical metrics:

• Access: Who institutions serve—and whether they expand opportunity for all students
• Earnings: What students achieve after completion—capturing the economic impact of their education

These measures offer a clearer, more equitable understanding of institutional impact that’s grounded in student outcomes rather than institutional reputation.

Knowles and Mitchell emphasized that this shift marks more than a methodological update, representing a fundamental redefinition of excellence in higher education that aligns institutional priorities with the success of the students they serve.

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IPR social psychologist Mesmin Destin was named a senior fellow by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in January, joining a group shaping the next generation of skills that high school students need to thrive in a fast‑changing world.

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Today’s world, the nonprofit XQ Institute argues in its new report The Future Is High School, “requires an entirely new kind of educational experience — one that traditional high schools were never designed to deliver,” the report found. 

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Incorporating ROI metrics has become common practice, with at least 46 states reporting college success outcomes and 35 states reporting workforce outcomes, according to Britebound, a nonprofit that helps students identify academic and career opportunities. ROI measures try to capture the amount of time it takes for a college graduate to break even on the cost of their postsecondary education and begin to earn more than a high school graduate. ROI formulas that estimate a program’s break-even point provide more nuance than those looking solely at earnings data.

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The Carnegie Award for Impact recognizes examples of significant impact on high school student success and preparation for career and postsecondary opportunities. With this award, Carnegie shines a light on models, approaches and continuous improvement practices that catalyze consistent and persuasive student results, and the key roles different stakeholders play in sustaining positive improvement.

With generous support from the Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation launched the award this year to celebrate work that has real impact on young people’s life trajectories and to call attention to practices that are transferable to other systems looking to achieve similar outcomes for students. “We are thrilled to honor these educators for the impact they are having on student experience and outcomes, and to share practical lessons from their work with the field,” said Timothy F.C. Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. “CORE, Hemet and Liberty are doing powerful work to equip young people for success.”

The 2026 recipients are:

• CORE Districts’ Breakthrough Success Community (BTSC). As collaborators in the CORE Districts’ BTSC, Fresno Unified, Garden Grove Unified, Long Beach Unified, and Oakland Unified school districts have significantly improved the number of 9th grade students, especially Black, Latinx and other students who are historically least-well served, who are on track to graduating with access to the widest array of postsecondary opportunities. Leveraging disciplined improvement cycles and structured opportunities to share learning across sites and systems, CORE Districts and these district systems have increased the percentage of students on track by 24.4% since 2020-21, interrupted inequitable patterns of success and failure, and strengthened the 9th grade experience.
• Hemet Unified School District. Hemet Unified School District has increased multiple measures of postsecondary readiness for learners across their system since 2022. The district applied continuous improvement methods to improve CTE pathway completion (up 15.3%) and California university admission requirement completion (up 6.9% since 2018), increase students meeting the California College and Career Indicator (up 15.0%), increase the graduation rate and decrease the dropout rate. As it improves outcomes, Hemet Unified is building a districtwide improvement infrastructure and strengthening collective ownership so that every student, especially those furthest from opportunity, graduates ready for college, career, and life.
• Liberty Public Schools. In 2025, 100% of Liberty Public Schools graduates participated in real world learning opportunities connected to the Liberty Graduate Profile, an increase from 42% of graduates participating in 2021. Through these experiences, students generate evidence of industry valued and recognized skills and readiness for postsecondary education or the workplace. The district’s focused cycles of testing and intentional scaling of effective practices have created a district-wide ecosystem that ensures that every student graduates with solid academic preparation as well as experiences that demonstrate readiness for the future.

This group of recipients stand out for the impact that they have seen over time and the intentional continuous improvement actions that continue to propel their achievement. The focused effort of the educators, leaders, families, and organizational partners working in these systems has prepared thousands of students to continue forward into fulfilling futures.

Over the next few months the Carnegie Foundation will collaborate with recipients to capture and share their individual impact stories and how their work has developed over time. Recipients will present together at the National Summit on Improvement in Education March 30-April 1, 2026 in San Diego, reflecting on key lessons learned and discussing the practices that have become central to achieving results in their systems.

Nearly 100 applications representing work taking place in 28 states and the District of Columbia were submitted for the 2026 award. Impact stories described students’ access to and success in mathematics courses; their participation in internships, career-technical education, and other real-world learning opportunities; freshmen completing their critical 9th grade year on-track to graduate and with a 3.0 or higher GPA; and seniors demonstrating the communication, critical thinking, and collaboration skills described in a district’s portrait of a graduate.

The Carnegie Foundation is grateful to the many people from organizations across the educational community who have participated in this first award cycle as peer reviewers, technical advisors, and applicants. The application for the 2027 Carnegie Award for Impact will open later this year.

The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. Join our mailing list and follow Carnegie on social.

The National Summit on Improvement in Education, hosted by the National Coalition for Improvement in Education (NCIE), will be held March 30-April 1, 2026, in San Diego, California. The National Summit is the annual gathering and rallying point for the vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive.

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On Wednesday, Feb. 4, the PPHS Board of Directors voted to relinquish PPHS South Bend’s charter at the end of the 2026-27 school year and enter into a memorandum of understanding with CANOPS, which, CANOPS CEO Jeremy Lugbill said, stands as a strong collaboration between the two schools.

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The nonprofit organization, which runs major programs aimed at students who plan to attend college, announced a partnership with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in December to expand the teacher pipeline for career-connected coursework. Then, in January, the College Board announced that it acquired nonprofit District C and its flagship work-based learning program Teamship.

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