Washington (Jan. 12, 2026)—More than 230 U.S. colleges and universities received the 2026 Carnegie Community Engagement (CE) Classification, an elective designation awarded by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that highlights an institution’s commitment to community engagement. A listing of all the institutions that currently hold the Classification endorsement can be found here.

“Higher education is a vital economic engine for us all. Our colleges and universities not only fuel science and innovation, they build prosperity in rural, urban and suburban communities nationwide. said Timothy F.C. Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation. “We celebrate each of these institutions, particularly their dedication to partnering with theirneighbors — fostering civic engagement, building useable knowledge, and catalyzing real world learning experiences for students.” 

Meanwhile, ACE and the Carnegie Foundation are also pleased to announce that the University of San Diego (USD) will serve as the administrative and operational host for the CE Classification for the next two cycles (2029 and 2032).

“Carnegie’s Community Engagement Classification is a mark of excellence for schools like USD that prioritize active collaboration with our public, private and nonprofit partners to address humanity’s urgent challenges and serve the public good,” said USD President James T. Harris III, D.Ed. “As a Catholic university and an anchor institution, we are proud to serve as operational host and assist other campuses in their journey of earning the Community Engagement designation while illustrating the tremendous impact institutions of higher education have in our communities.”

The CE Classification is awarded following a process of self-study by each institution. The classification has been the leading framework for institutional assessment and recognition of community engagement in U.S. higher education for the past 19 years with classification cycles in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2024, and now 2026. The 2029 cycle will be for first-time applicants.

In the 2026 cycle, 237 institutions earned the CE Classification, joining the 40 institutions classified in 2024 for a total of 277 institutions that currently hold the designation. Of the institutions recognized in 2026, 48 are receiving the classification for the first time, while 189 have previously held it. The 2026 cohort includes a diverse range of institutions, with 157 public institutions, 80 private colleges and universities, and 81 Minority Serving Institutions represented among the recipients.

“The institutions receiving the 2026 Community Engagement Classification exemplify American higher education’s commitment to the greater good,” said ACE President Ted Mitchell. “The beneficiaries of this unflagging dedication to public purpose missions are their students, their teaching and research enterprises, and their wider communities.”

The application for the 2029 Community Engagement Classification will be available January 2027. Applications will be due April 2028, and the announcement of the newly designated campuses will be made in January 2029. Click here for more information about the application and the timeline.

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About the Carnegie Classifications

The Carnegie Classifications are the nation’s leading framework for categorizing and describing colleges and universities in the United States. Utilized frequently by policymakers, funders, and researchers, the Classifications are a critical benchmarking tool for postsecondary institutions. ACE and the Carnegie Foundation announced a partnership in February 2022 to reimagine the Classifications to better reflect the diversity of postsecondary institutions and more completely characterize the impact that today’s institutions have in society.

About ACE

ACE is a membership organization that leads higher education with a united vision for the future, galvanizing our members to make change and collaborating across the sector to design solutions for today’s challenges, serve the needs of a diverse student population, and shape effective public policy. As the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities, our strength lies in our diverse membership of nearly 1,600 colleges and universities, related associations, and other organizations in America and abroad. ACE is the only major higher education association to represent all types of U.S. accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities. For more information, please visit www.acenet.edu or follow ACE on X @ACEducation and LinkedIn.

About the Carnegie Foundation

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. Enacted by an act of Congress in 1906, the Foundation has a rich history of driving transformational change in the education sector, including the establishment of TIAA-CREF and the creation of the Education Testing Service, the GRE, and the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education. The Foundation was also instrumental in the formation of the U.S. Department of Education and Pell Grants, and most recently in the use of networked improvement science to redress systemic inequities in educational opportunities and outcomes.

About the University of San Diego
Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is among the Top 20 Best Private Schools for Making an Impact according to The Princeton Review. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.

Dr. Parham is a distinguished psychologist with more than 40 years of combined experience as an academician, executive administrator, scholar and practitioner. Before his presidency at Cal State University, Dominguez Hill, he served as vice chancellor for student affairs and adjunct faculty at the University of California, Irvine, where he had been since 1985. Dr. Parham has served in many key administrative roles in higher ed, and began his career with an appointment on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Dr. Parham served on the Carnegie Classifications Institutional Roundtable to provide strategic guidance on the development of the updated classifications. He will be retiring from his role as president of Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, effective December 31, 2025.

Please share a bit about your personal educational experience and upbringing. How did your early experiences inform your career trajectory?

My journey to the presidency is an interesting one. I’m a psychologist by training, and a culturally centered one at that, who was delighted to be an academician. I love doing clinical work and seeing patients, teaching in the classroom, doing my research and scholarly work, and then consulting and administration. Somehow, though, my career has moved through this trajectory over the last 43+ years. It was kind of the fulfillment of a projection, if you will, from my mentor, the great Dr. Joseph L. White, from the University of California, Irvine, who was the contemporary father of the Black psychology movement.

Short story: I grew up in LA, in a single-parent household. I’m a product of public and parochial school education, and then went on to college at Cal State University, Long Beach, where I was determined to be either a police officer or an attorney. When I was young, my mom said, “Son, you have no business complaining about anything unless you’re willing to put something better in its place.” And so I grew up amid the ’60s and the ’70s with a mama who raised four kids by herself, worked for the federal government 32 years, and never earned more than $18,000 a year. I learned very early on about inequity and unfairness, both in watching my mom and watching the streets. When I went to college at Long Beach State, it had the largest criminology department in the western United States, so it was a good place to be if I was going to be an attorney or a police officer, but I was frustrated with my education there. I both perceived many of my faculty as racially biased, and learned that the criminal justice system was really about whoever had the best counsel and could manipulate the system the best, and that violated my spirit about why I wanted to get into the field in the first place, which was to help people and make a difference.

Fortunately, while at Long Beach, I got involved in what we now call co-curricular or service learning. I participated in an educational participation in the community program. Based on that experience, I then summized that part of knowing what you want to do in life is not just figuring out what you’re interested in, but also what you are good at, and based on supervisor feedback, I had a knack for this work. Ultimately, I left Long Beach and transferred to the University of California, Irvine, which changed my whole trajectory. The educational ambiance was rigorous, and I had mentoring from Joe White, and it was clear that I wanted to be a psychologist. After graduate school, it was reported that I became the first African-American academic psychologist the University of Pennsylvania ever hired in its 240-year history after it was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1740. 

What brought you to become President of Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, and what do you most admire about the university?

After my work at Penn, I was recruited to be at the University of California, Irvine, where I thought I’d stay for five years before going back to full-time faculty. 33 years later, I was still at Irvine, serving as an administrator, faculty member, scholar/researcher, and clinician, when I got a call from former President Willie Hagin, who said, “This is an opportunity you need to take a look at as I’m getting ready to retire at Cal State University, Dominguez Hills.”

Dominguez Hills spoke to me. I applied and was lucky enough to be chosen as the 11th president of Cal State University, Dominguez Hills. I love the social justice nature of the campus. I love the fact that the California Master Plan has three legs: Excellence in academics and research, access to the state citizenry, and affordability. What I love about the CSU is that it provides access. When I came to Dominguez Hills, I announced that we would not judge our worth on selectivity ratios, but rather we would judge our worth in the Cal State system and at Dominguez Hills in particular, on how many students we can admit and how many lives we can transform.

This is a magnificent institution that has allowed me to do that. Under my tenure, I’ve developed relationships with folks, and this whole community has really embraced me as president and embraced this vision to dream about what’s possible, instead of settling for what’s traditional and predictable.

Please describe your leadership approach at CSU Dominguez Hills.

I recognize that leaders are only as good as the work produced by the people who work with and for them. Any good leader worth their salt understands that. My job is to provide strategic vision, appropriate consultation, cultivate individuals, invite folks to step aside if they are not aligned with the vision, and surround myself with good, competent people. Ironically, while I have created some of it, I’ve not had to create a lot of the excellence that you now see; I’ve simply had a chance to reveal the excellence that remained more latent than visible.

My vision and mantra as president are as follows: 

• I start with the idea that there’s no greater blessing in life next to being a parent than being entrusted with the personal and intellectual growth and development of students. My students range from 16 years old to our oldest graduate, who just broke the record last year for receiving a BA degree at 80 years of age.
• I tell my faculty and staff not to guess if students are ready for Dominguez Hills, but rather, to consider: “Are you ready for these students?” As I see it, each student is a seed of divinely inspired possibility, and if we can nurture them in the proper context, they’ll grow into the fullest expression of all they are supposed to become. CSU Dominguez Hills is the soil into which these divine seeds of possibility are going to be placed and if we water the soil with the drops of intellectual enrichment, if we nourish the soil with the values of nurturing and socialization, if we till the soil to remove the weeds of social distraction out of their lives, and give them enough sunlight of affirmation to make them feel good about being here, and affirm their sense of humanity, and give them just enough shade of critique, then we just stand back and watch them grow into the fullest expression of all they are supposed to become. Our students thrive in that kind of environment.
• CSU Dominguez Hill is a destination campus, not a default campus. I invite external stakeholders to embrace that ask while I ask my faculty and staff to dream about what’s possible, and stop settling for what’s been traditional.
• We need to own success rather than rent it. I tell my faculty that there is a difference between renting and owning success. While you take pride in the A’s and B’s students achieve, you also need to own the C’s, the D’s, the Fs, and the withdrawals. This is all of our jobs to be in that space. 

CSU Dominguez Hills has recently been named an Opportunity College and University (OCU) according to the Carnegie Student Access and Earnings Classification for being a leading institution in generating opportunity. What practices or processes drive student success on your campus?

In practice, we blew up our advising model and made it less centralized and more college-based and specific. We strengthened student supports, pursued a culture of care, and put a brand new strategic plan in place. Now, people are in a space where they think it is possible to make this vision come to life at Dominguez Hills. Along the way, we’ve seen new curricula and have more academic accreditations now than we ever have in our history. My message of striving for student excellence and being a snob for our students has rippled throughout the whole campus community. So not only are we an Opportunity College and University and in several national rankings, but we also have the educational excellence that reflects where we should be as a state system. 

This is reflected in the numbers, too. Two years ago, our retention rates for first-year full-time freshmen and transfers were up 8%, and this last year, the numbers were up 6.5%, so we’ve risen 14.5% in two years. This is due to my incredible student success team and superb cabinet, who have aligned around this shared vision. This work takes time, and it’s amazing to see the efforts we’ve cultivated over time to dramatically increase retention and graduation numbers for our students. 

As President of CSU Dominguez Hills, you served on the Institutional Roundtable to help reimagine the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education. Why is this work important, and what do you think the new classifications will mean for higher education in the decades to come?

Sitting on the Institutional Roundtable for the Carnegie Classifications was one of the honors of my life. It goes back to what Joe White, my mentor, first taught me: “Produce enough excellence, excellence will bring you opportunity.” At the Raise the Bar Summit, hosted by then-Secretary of Education Miguel Cordona, I was invited to present the argument that colleges and universities should not judge their worth based on selectivity ratios, but on how many students gain access to their universities and how many lives they transform through social and economic mobility. Ted Mitchell, President of ACE, was at the Raise the Bar Summit, and called me a few weeks later to invite me to join the committee, presumably because of my perspective and passion for the work, and my ideas for bringing social and economic mobility as a factor that should be measured and assessed in higher ed.

Over a year and a half, I collaborated with other university presidents on the committee, and I was proud to be the only CSU voice in the room. Collectively, we said there ought to be something more than the dollars you have and the number of doctoral programs and students you train to determine classifications. We need to include other variables and factors because it’s more nuanced, and it’s more integrated and complex than just those simple variables. And looking at the CSUs, 15 of the 23 CSU campuses are now designated as Opportunity Colleges and Universities. Elevating the CSU in that space is one of the pride points of my career. 

This work—along with that report we did on Black student success coming out of the Juneteenth Symposium I hosted, which was the first one in CSU history—is an institutional achievement that will live way beyond individual leaders, like myself, because that represents systemic change. Now, the Carnegie Classifications provide a more accurate mirror and portrait of what institutions represent, particularly in some of the urban universities around the nation, which are doing the great work for their students. 

Many people say that higher education is having an existential moment with enrollment dips, ballooning debt, and declining public confidence. How do you feel about this moment, and how can we ensure that postsecondary education remains a vital engine for transformation and opportunity?  

Indeed, this is an existential moment, but education, and higher education in particular, remains the civil rights issue of our day. In spite of the times, the one word I would use to describe my perspective, spirit, and posture is, in fact, hopeful. I’m encouraged. I am almost grateful for the moment. As Sheryl Sandberg said, we need to “lean in,” even to the crazy. It sounds a little strange, but here’s what’s true: In my office, I keep a picture of Martin and Malcolm on the wall as well as a picture of the ancestors and the slave dungeons in Elmina and Cape Coast, from when I visited Ghana, Africa. Collectively, when I have a bad day or when I think the challenges of our day are too overwhelming, the ambiance in my office reminds me to always contextualize struggle. What I know is that we’ve been through worse than this and trouble don’t last always.

When we think about the social context, higher education simply cannot afford to lose its way or to be diminished in importance. Higher education has to be true to its mission of trying to help educate folks, to facilitate innovation and creativity, to help students discover and learn more facts and data, to help students form more cogent and persuasive arguments, to embrace this grand experiment in democracy and diversity that we have, and to learn how to respect, support, and affirm the dignity and humanity of every member of the human family. 

As the CSU, we are the largest system of public higher education in America. We take a backseat to nobody in that regard, and make good on the lives we change, the lives we transform, and the people we educate. We should be boldly stepping out to say we’re going to keep on keeping on. The question is: How do we sustain some movement and momentum in the face of the adversity higher education is confronting? And that’s why I’m confident that we’re gonna keep on keeping on. I’m hopeful.

Multi-state initiative will modernize certification pathways and pilot new professional learning model for high-demand fields

New York, NY — College Board and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching today announced a new partnership to strengthen the teacher pipeline and expand student access to career-connected coursework. Together, the institutions are launching a multi-state coalition to co-design modern teacher certification pathways and reimagine how educators are trained and supported to teach high school courses that prepare young people for college and career success.

Building on College Board’s Advanced Placement Career Kickstart courses, the partnership will support states as they redesign teacher pathways, update certification systems, and expand access to career-connected courses in high-demand fields. AP Career Kickstart expands the proven AP model by offering high schools a new set of career-focused courses and exams. Initial courses will be offered in cybersecurity and business.

“For decades, students have turned to AP to challenge themselves and prepare for college,” said David Coleman, CEO of the College Board. “Now we’re bringing that same energy to career learning, but students can only access these opportunities when teachers are prepared to deliver them. We’re proud to join the Carnegie Foundation in reimagining the American high school by ensuring teachers have the training, support, and modern certification pathways they need to guide students toward credentials that count for the future they choose.”

As states pursue competency-based policies and broaden career-connected pathways, the need for qualified teachers is urgent and growing. Despite significant state investment, 57% of administrators still report having trouble filling Career and Technical Education teaching positions, compared to 39% for other subjects. Current certification rules, which often include significant time and financial investment, can make finding a qualified teacher even more difficult. Without new thinking, those rules will continue to prevent talented teachers from teaching new career-relevant subjects and stymie efforts to prepare more young people for work and life.

The Carnegie Foundation and College Board are addressing this challenge by inviting states to join a coalition that will co-design and pilot new teacher pathways aligned with competencybased and career-connected learning in their states. Participating states will have the opportunity to co-design flexible teacher certification systems, expand access to AP and careerconnected courses, and contribute to a shared research agenda. Each state will also have the chance to serve as an early pilot site for a new AP Cybersecurity professional learning model.

“As we work to transform the American high school, we know that high-quality teaching remains the most powerful driver of student learning and success,” said Timothy F.C. Knowles, President of the Carnegie Foundation. “We are honored to partner with the College Board—an institution that, like Carnegie, has shaped American education for more than a century—to reimagine teacher preparation in ways that expand access, strengthen competency-based pathways, and advance success for students and educators.”

The coalition will launch in January 2026, with pilot programs beginning in June 2026. States interested in participating, and teachers interested in learning more about AP certification for career-connected learning, should contact Troy Smith, Executive Director, K-12 Policy, at tsmith@collegeboard.org.

For media inquiries please contact:

• College Board Media Relations: Holly Stepp, hstepp@collegeboard.org
• Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching: Kito Cetrulo, kcetrulo@carnegiefoundation.org

About the College Board

College Board reaches more than 7 million students a year, helping them navigate the path from high school to college and career. Our not-for-profit membership organization was founded more than 120 years ago. College Board pioneered programs like the SAT® and AP® to expand opportunities for students and help them develop the skills they need. The BigFuture® program helps students plan for college, pay for college, and explore careers.

About the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

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. Enacted by an act of Congress in 1906, the Foundation has a rich history of driving transformational change in the education sector, including the establishment of TIAA-CREF and the creation of the Education Testing Service, the GRE, Pell Grants, and the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education.

Explore this insightful Q&A with Gregg Behr, Executive Director of the Grable Foundation, and Laura Jacob, Superintendent of California Area School District in rural western Pennsylvania, as they discuss their approach to innovation and how they are building lasting momentum for change in their region. Behr and Jacob discuss the impact of their partnership and the importance of high school in students’ learning journeys, while sharing a ‘little bets’ strategy, where thousands of small, developmentally appropriate innovations aggregate into ‘big moonshots’ over time. 

Their collaborative success is epitomized by California Area School District’s engagement within the Future of High School Network, an effort of 24 systems across the country dedicated to driving the evidence and implementation needed for a new architecture for high school nationwide.

The Grable Foundation is a powerful force in Pittsburgh’s education landscape. Among its areas of focus—early learning, public schools, out-of-school time, and more—the foundation also invests in high school transformation. Why high school, and why now?

Gregg Behr: Next year marks the 50th year for the Grable Foundation, and from the very beginning, supporting public schools has been a core focus. The school districts in western Pennsylvania have positioned themselves at the forefront of education innovation. Right now, we’re supporting a cohort called Future-Driven Schools, a regional alliance of nearly 50 public school districts working together—and with AASA, the School Superintendents Association—to prepare every learner for tomorrow. We have 19 school districts that are part of Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools. By nearly any measure, the nation’s largest cluster of innovative school districts is right here in western Pennsylvania. And the California Area School District—a member of this amazing Future of High School Network—is a great example of what that innovation looks like.

Something important about our region, and about our investment in public high schools, is the willingness of school boards and district leaders, like California Area’s Laura Jacob, to step forward. Of course, they are addressing the poverty, polarization, and everything else that’s in front of them. But these leaders are also recognizing what kids want, need, and deserve. High school is, in the end, the most critical part of that learning journey. 

So, why now? We have leadership that’s willing to take risks in developmentally appropriate ways, rethinking the entirety of the pre-K to 12 learning journey for kids, teachers, parents, families, and caregivers alike. The hardest nut to crack in all of that is high school and the bell schedule. 

How is California Area School District collaborating with the Grable Foundation? What are the key goals and the impact thus far?

Laura Jacob: The Grable Foundation is truly our nation’s and our area’s cheerleaders, as public school superintendents. They’re, without a doubt, this ongoing force in the Pittsburgh area that is championing, encouraging, and helping education leaders facilitate the change that we want to see happen. They’re also working tremendously hard to bring together individuals who want to see improvements in our schools to learn from one another, to identify different strategies school systems are utilizing to spur our professional learning together. Those conversations with tremendous leaders only continue to raise the bar. Grable has been relentless in communicating the positivity of public education, and highlighting the good work that is happening, and truly the organization has our back as public school leaders.

For example, with the Moonshot Grant from Grable, I’ve never had a grant opportunity where the grant specifically says, “we want you to make bold, challenging, risky moves, even if it means failure.” Right now, we know that when it comes to changing high school, we have to change the systematic structures that we have in place. Our current Moonshot grant is trying to redesign the transcript. We’re calling it the village transcript, as it takes a village to raise a child, and all stakeholders should contribute to identifying the skills, dispositions, and abilities of children. No longer is the transcript simply sharing high school grades, which don’t give us a good picture of the true child, but now, we’re developing a system and a structure so that we can highlight all the skills, knowledge, and experiences our community wants for our children. We’re using the skills that have been identified in Carnegie and ETS’s Skills for the Future work. For example, if a student works at the local volunteer fire department, that work would not show up on a typical high school transcript. In other words, they would be an average student, and their passion for the fire department, and the skills and certifications they’ve gained wouldn’t be traditionally recognized in a high school transcript. Now, that’s going to change with the village transcript because it’s going to provide a broader picture of what the child brings to the next step in life after high school. If it wasn’t for Grable pushing our thinking and providing a support structure with the Moonshot Grant, we likely wouldn’t be willing to take the risk of transforming the transcript.

What lessons do you think your collaboration offers about the crucial importance of local partnership and investment in driving and sustaining educational innovation? Who else needs to be at the table to appreciate the risks of innovation and to sustain and scale transformation?

Gregg: The blessing and the curse of philanthropy is that you’re always in the stratosphere. You’re always at 30,000 feet. The blessing side of that position is that we can see what’s going on, who’s doing what, and how they’re doing it. We have the privilege at Grable to support the broader learning landscape, including what happens in school, but also in early learning, out-of-school time, and mentoring. So, we invest in a range of field-building organizations year in, year out—the organizations convening and supporting early learning professionals, arts educators, out-of-school-time programs, elected officials, and beyond.

We also support Remake Learning, a nearly 20-year-old dynamic network of 800 schools, museums, libraries, campuses of higher education, creative industries, and more. What we’ve tried to do is make it incredibly normal for funders, out-of-school time directors, school superintendents, high school teachers, early learning teachers, and librarians to be in common professional development and learning programs. We’re trying to make it normal that the human beings who care about kids find a reason to get together, to wonder together, to try new things, and to ask that ever-hopeful question: “How might we?”

At its best, philanthropy is the R&D of civil society. Philanthropy can help give freedom and permission to leaders like Laura in schools—but also in museums and libraries and out-of-school spaces—to try new things. Sometimes, those efforts fail, though always in developmentally appropriate ways. Sometimes, they lead to something amazing—something that supports learners in ways no one would have been able to achieve on their own. Again, this work is about making it normal for folks like Laura and other innovators to find cause to work together, so that it’s not weird that Laura’s working with Carnegie Mellon University, or the Andy Warhol Museum, or the local workforce investment board. It’s the norm. And it’s supported by a lot of communications, too.

Laura: If it weren’t for the Grable Foundation, I wouldn’t necessarily be in contact with many of the school leaders or organizations I am now, because I’m located about 45 to 50 minutes south of Pittsburgh in a rural, small school district. Traditionally, I would not have the opportunities to interact and engage with the superintendents or museums, for example, in the Pittsburgh area. California Area School District is now connecting regularly on Zoom with a non-profit, after-school program in Pittsburgh, learning from one another because of Grable. Their ability to bring us all together has been tremendous in sustaining focus and patience.

We sometimes like to think that innovation happens immediately overnight, but it takes time. I believe in constant 1% improvement change day in and day out. It’s so important to highlight regularly where we’re seeing change happen, and how we can go even further. Innovation also requires sustained focus on constant improvement to push things further, despite challenges. The more you see change, and hear from supportive partners that you are doing innovative things, the more you believe it yourself and feel motivated to continue pushing. Sustainability, as well as focus, has really empowered us as a team.

Gregg: We talk a lot about little bets and big moonshots. To be sure, it’s part of our vernacular, and it’s an actual part of our grant-making strategy here in the Pittsburgh region via Remake Learning. We fully believe that genuine, sticky change happens in the aggregations of thousands and thousands of little bets. We can speak to the systemic changes that Laura’s taking on, but it’s little bets that add up to those changes: putting solar scooters on campus to get kids from one building to the next. Building a yurt to support outdoor learning. Bringing baby lambs in to support struggling readers in a way that they feel more comfortable, particularly in a rural setting where baby animals are familiar to kids. Using bees and beekeeping, another familiar phenomenon, to teach math. It’s the compilation of lots and lots of little things, none of which was a moonshot, and all of which was unexpected. It’s the compilation of that and many dozens of other things that position a school district—or an educational service agency, or a state—to think in a big way at a game-changing moment.

As I mentioned, we work with 47 districts involved in what we locally call Future-Driven Schools, a partnership with AASA. Next month, we are organizing a workshop around high school reform, and after that workshop, we’re going to make available to all 47 school districts grants of $1,000 each to make little bets of their own. In aggregate, it’s $47,000, which is not a huge amount of money. But we all know that schools can do incredible things with $1,000. Really, it’s just that little bit of permission, that opportunity, for someone in the district to do something tangible and passion-driven, to push something meaningful a little bit further. Then, they’ll have the opportunity to showcase the learning that happens across the network. This is an example of that little bet mentality that positions and drives us to take those moonshots.

What gives you hope and confidence that there is a positive momentum for transforming high schools across Pittsburgh because of what you’re witnessing and driving in your grantmaking?

Gregg: I have a list of five things that give me hope and confidence about the momentum for transforming high school: 

• Systems making use of learning science. Over the past decade, we’ve seen simple changes—like getting rid of the bell schedule—made ordinary to respond to how teenagers are best supported in their well-being, which is foundational to any learning that might happen. 
• Strong professional development and learning. When we look at our intermediate units in Pennsylvania—our educational service agencies—as well as significant nonprofit providers of PD, it has been made normal that museum directors, early childhood educators, high school teachers, and others are just in that same space together, whether they’re wrestling with STEM-infused curricula, or maker-centered learning, or career pathways. Ten, fifteen years ago, this would have been shocking. 
• Proliferation of networks. For decades, Grable and other funders have supported the Forum of Western Pennsylvania Superintendents, the Assistant Superintendents Forum, and the Principals Academy. There are so many leadership and teacher-led networks, like Project Zero Pittsburgh and others, where school leaders are finding reasons to connect, driving their own learning, cooperation, partnership, and building relationships, which is the essential glue for anything spreading beyond a singular building or district or entity.
• Project-based learning momentum. We’ve supported the creation of a Pittsburgh version, across multiple districts, of World of Work, borrowing from work in San Diego, where districts have introduced aviation programming or drone technology. School leaders are now wrestling with AI, but doing so together—writing policies together, thinking about coursework together, forging partnerships together with technology companies in Pittsburgh or with Carnegie Mellon University. It’s a lot of cross-district, serious, hands-on, project-based learning, and introducing curricula in new ways in their schools.
• Parent, family, and caregiver engagement. Too often, we leave them out. We have more than thirty-five school districts in this region that have been part of Parents as Allies for the last five years. After establishing research with Brookings and HundrED a few years ago, parent-led teams were established across Western Pennsylvania. These teams have since launched over 200 “little bets” to move engagement beyond basic communication, fostering a “village mentality” where families become active allies with schools, focused on the core purpose of learning and student development—a vital component for reimagining high school.

How has California Area School District worked with students, parents, and families to create a collaborative culture to support your high school transformation work?

Laura: This focus on community flips the framework to design experiences where it isn’t an us-versus-them experience, but it is truly a partnership to ensure that our kids are as successful as they possibly can be. We ask ourselves: “How can we design experiences so that all families feel welcome, not just certain families?” That was the first step in Parents as Allies: teaching us how to approach those experiences. The next step is making sure everyone is at the table, ensuring that we have diversity of perspectives and voices so that all feel welcome in our communities. 

From a leadership perspective, we see this in a class we call “The Moonshot Class,” where there are no grades and no grade levels at all. If you make it optional, families can choose to be part of it. We started with just twenty kids being part of the Moonshot program. I’m a small school, but we’ve now grown to over one hundred students who have chosen to be part of the Moonshot program. Again, it’s a step-by-step progression and change that’s happening, but that also keeps it sustainable. If I were to just dictate change, it’s not going to stick. You won’t have people believe in it. They will just comply or not comply, and that would be the end of it. By making it optional and having families involved in the decision-making, it becomes a community decision. When people get to opt in to an opportunity, that’s their vote of belief in the work and it’s how we’ve been able to sustain the Moonshot program.

Gregg: If we look at Laura’s tenure, or the tenure of superintendents among the school districts involved in our local League of Innovative Schools members, or the Future-Driven Schools with AASA, their leadership tenure far outstrips the national average. Now, that might be partly a product of Western Pennsylvania being less nomadic than other places. My conjecture is, I genuinely believe the connections that school leaders feel make the work a whole lot less lonely. And, in a sense, I think the investment in infrastructure is buying us time with leaders who have more time to accomplish more things, because we all know what leaders at four years versus nine years versus at eleven years can accomplish. 

How is the Grable team able to know how to support colleagues in your community?

Gregg: I’d like to think that we just have a culture of curiosity here. We try to go places together, so it’s never one singular person, but also making sure the whole team knows what’s happening. Really spending the time so that we’re reading, digesting, trying to make sense of things, and talking to one another. I always tell people to get out of the office. It’s just so important to be present. And honestly, we talk all the time about a customer service ethic, and we aspire at Grable to have a Ritz-Carlton, Disney-like customer service ethos, internal and external. And that external bit often means just being present and bearing witness, rather than pontificating and interrupting. I hope that’s true.

Laura: If I could interject from my perspective, the Grable Foundation is present with us, and we’re engaging together. So yes, they’re right beside me at, say, a conference or a professional development opportunity, but then also we’re having free discussions of “How do we make this happen in Pittsburgh?” or “How do we adjust or highlight certain things?” They’re physically there, but they’re also very much engaged with us together in those discussions.

Gregg: We are fundraisers as much as we are grantmakers. I would like to think that we’re a smart grantmaker, and we also know that others have funds, too. So, let’s be advocates and fundraisers as much as we are grantmakers. Because it’s not our money. Added together, it’s the community’s money.

What advice would you give local policymakers, funders, educators, and school leaders in cities across the country about building philanthropic partnerships to support high school transformation?

Gregg: I have four pieces of advice. The first is geared toward philanthropy because it’s best suited to fund intermediary and field-building organizations that attend to the quality of our learning landscape. They attend to professional development, they attend to marketing, they’re the ones who are bringing together leadership groups. That is unsexy funding. I suspect a lot of funders see it as boring, but it’s core, it’s critical, it’s foundational. Little else good can happen absent that core funding for attention to quality in the fields of interest, year in, year out.

This is related to the second piece of advice: patient support. It’s important not to get tired or start questioning which way the wind is blowing.

A third thing would be getting comfortable with catalytic grantmaking for discretionary purposes. I’m so lucky that I work on behalf of trustees who get and support that. And that, together with other funders—the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the Benedum Foundation, the Hillman Family Foundations—we’ve been able to pool funds together, for example, at Remake Learning. Then, Remake Learning itself has its own RFP process, its own panel review process, that allows for things like those Moonshot Grants. So, pooled funds provide community-based discretionary support for leaders.

The fourth is a deep investment in communications and broad support for the myriad ways we can help tell and invest in storytelling through videography, photography, social media, writers, and PR. Communication provides cover, encourages courage, and helps spread ideas.

Laura: It’s easy to point out challenges or the limitations of an idea, especially in our polarized society; however, as a leader, be sure to identify yourself with challenges that might exist in developing an idea, but champion giving it a try, and the what-ifs. 

Both Grable and Carnegie have been amazing thought partners to talk through big ideas. School leaders will always be faced with naysayers, but if you take feedback seriously, you might not achieve your end goal at the very beginning, but you can take incremental steps that begin to snowball. At the same time, as leaders, we have to be close with those who keep lifting us up and help us push forward, because it’s the supporters that keep us motivated to continue to make the change we want to see happen.