Every year, more than 20,000 education innovators, investors, and practitioners descend on San Diego for the ASU+GSV Summit, one of the premier gatherings of education thought leaders and changemakers. ALI is heading in with a full agenda: convening leaders, leading sessions that showcase R&D in action, and connecting with partners driving impact across the country.
Convening Leaders
We’re thrilled to co-host the inaugural ASU+GSV State Leaders Forum on Tuesday, April 14, bringing together roughly 15 state superintendents to discuss pressing issues in education, including the role of R&D in driving innovation and improvement. We’ll also gather deputy state superintendents for hands-on working sessions focused on translating research into evidence-based practice and building peer connections across states that are making education R&D a priority. Our goal is to surface practical insights that can spark and scale innovation in K–12.
We’re partnering with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to host a roundtable on Monday, April 13, bringing together education leaders, industry executives, and policy experts. The conversation will focus on Carnegie’s recent high school transformation efforts and the intersections with ALI’s education R&D work, and examine questions such as: How can industry demand a new evidence base for high school transformation; and what does a national R&D infrastructure needs to look like to support competency-based pathways at scale?
Sharing Ed R&D Insights
I’ll moderate a panel called From Blueprint to Breakthrough: Catalyzing the Next Era of K–12 R&D on Tuesday, April 14, from 3:00–3:40 PM PT on the State Policy & Power Stage. This panel brings together leaders who are shaping the next chapter of education innovation. We’ll dig into how federal and state policymakers can turn ambitious R&D goals into actionable strategies through responsive frameworks, genuine partnerships, and student-centered approaches.
Learning from our Coalition
Beyond ALI’s own programming, our coalition members and partners will be hosting several sessions well worth checking out:
- Build It Right the First Time: Literacy EdTech Backed by Science. Moderated by Medha Tare of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop (an ALI coalition member), this panel explores what it looks like to build with education R&D from the very beginning: grounding design in the science of literacy, incorporating child voice, and drawing on rigorous evidence. I’m particularly interested in how this conversation brings together founders, researchers, and investors around a shared goal: to develop solutions that are designed to deliver results from day one.
- What works?! A National R&D Infrastructure for Trustworthy AI. As AI continues to transform education at a rapid pace, I’m looking forward to hearing how the field is grappling with the fundamental question: what actually works? In this session, Jeremy Roschelle of Digital Promise (an ALI coalition member) will moderate a conversation on a bold response: a national R&D infrastructure designed to generate rapid, rigorous evidence at scale. This panel represents a shift from slow, fragmented research toward a more coordinated, privacy-first approach that builds trust, accelerates learning, and helps ensure AI benefits all students.
- The Critical Middle: Scaling Project-Based Career Learning. Another conversation that stands out to me is focused on middle school, an often overlooked but incredibly important stage for shaping curiosity, identity, and future aspirations. Research from Britebound shows a striking gap: 87% of middle schoolers want to connect learning to careers and 70% say they would have been more engaged if school had done so. This session, featuring Kate Parsons and Corey Mohn from CAPS Network (an ALI coalition member), explores efforts to bring project-based career learning to middle school at scale so that these “critical middle” years can become a true launchpad for engagement, exploration, and future success.
Our ASU+GSV 2026 R&D Highlights guide spotlights sessions featuring ALI members and supporters. We hope you’ll check out as many as possible!
What I’m Watching
From AI-enabled learning to evidence-informed approaches in education and workforce development, ASU+GSV 2026 will be buzzing with fresh ideas, experimentation, and collaboration. We’re looking forward to bringing what we learn back to ALI and applying it to strengthen R&D systems and advance practices that prepare students for what’s ahead.
Image credit: ASU+GSV
