InnovateEDU

19/06/2026

In honor of Juneteenth, our offices are closed today. While this day marks a historic milestone in the journey toward freedom, it also serves as a critical reminder of the work that remains.

Education is foundational to true freedom. We’re taking this day to reflect on how we can continue building fair and accessible education systems where each student has the tools and opportunities to succeed.

18/06/2026

Over the past decade, school districts have accumulated thousands of EdTech tools, often without clear evidence that they actually improve student outcomes.

The future of learning should not be defined by how new or innovative a product might be or how much technology schools use. In a recent OpEd for the The 74, Lina Eroh and Anu Malipatil of the Overdeck Family Foundation outline how district and school leaders can more carefully evaluate which tools belong in the classroom by asking five key questions.

1. What problem are we trying to solve?
2. Is there credible evidence this tool works?
3. Does the tool support teachers or substitute for them?
4. How will we know if the tool delivers?
5. Can we explain it clearly to families?

The lesson of the past decade is not that technology is bad. It is that schools need to be far more disciplined about what they adopt, why they adopt it, and how they measure success.

Read the full article on The 74: https://www.the74million.org/article/5-questions-to-help-schools-and-districts-make-smarter-ed-tech-decisions/

Eroh & Malipatil: If a tool does not improve learning, help teachers or advance a clear instructional goal, it does not belong in the classroom.

18/06/2026

The summer is a great time to reset, strategize, and expand your professional toolbox. Partnership for Student Success offers two vital resources to boost your summer PD.

➤ Improving Chronic Absenteeism
"The School-Based Site Coordinator’s Guide to Improving Chronic Absenteeism" provides a layered roadmap built on frameworks from Hedy Chang (AttendanceWorks) and Dr. Robert Balfanz (Everyone Graduates Center). It helps community school leads and wrap-around support teams transition from prevention to active problem-solving with evidence-based strategies targeting the root causes of absences.

Explore the Attendance Toolkit: https://www.partnershipstudentsuccess.org/attendance-solutions-toolkit/

➤ Amplifying Your Program’s Impact
"Proven and Powerful: A Guide to Media and Messaging" (created with InnovateEDU) helps you turn daily student impact into compelling news stories. It delivers a clear blueprint for building media relationships, staying on message during interviews, and utilizing tested messages that resonate with stakeholders.

Access the Media & Messaging Guide: https://www.partnershipstudentsuccess.org/media-and-messaging-toolkit/

Download these actionable frameworks to strengthen your outreach and build momentum for the upcoming school year.

18/06/2026

Erin Mote is headed to Auckland, New Zealand! 🇳🇿

InnovateEDU is proud to participate in the International Test Commission (ITC) Biennial Conference 2026. This year’s theme, "Testing for good: Using tests to benefit individuals and society," focuses heavily on accessibility, inclusion, and the impact of rapid technological shifts on assessment.

Our CEO, Erin Mote, will speak at a session exploring how foundational measurement concepts guide next-generation tech. Alongside Eric Tucker, she will present on "Evidence-Centered Design and AI-Powered Educational Measurement." The session demonstrates how extending Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) to integrate teacher models, pedagogical context, and AI safety frameworks helps ensure emerging assessment systems remain valid, safe, and equitable.

➤ Symposium: Modeling What Matters: The Legacy of Robert J. Mislevy in the AI Era
➤ Date & Time: Wednesday, July 1, 2026 | 8:00 AM – 9:15 AM (NZST)
➤ Location: University of Auckland Business School

Erin will join an incredible lineup of co-presenters including: Kristen Huff, Neal Kingston, Edmund W. Gordon, Eric M. Tucker, Mary Pitoniak, Maria Elena Oliveri, and Mark D. Reckase to discuss bridging psychometric traditions with the future of AI.

17/06/2026

Earlier this week, Cameron Benham, policy associate for InnovateEDU, took part in a timely dialogue hosted by Arizona State University Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation. Cameron participated in a panel – "The Youth-Serving Workforce: An Economic Engine for Communities Across the Country – alongside Carolyn Trager Kliman (Arizona State University) and Stephanie R. Wu (City Year).

As AI fundamentally alters the professional landscape, the youth-serving workforce plays a critical role. They guide young people through evolving career pathways while fostering the exact adaptability, analytical agility, and human connection needed to flourish.

The panel highlighted three crucial areas for the future of our sector:
➤ Designing for the Learning Sciences: Advocating for AI tools in education and youth services that are explicitly built to support how students actually learn.

➤ Prioritizing Human Connection: Recognizing that strong relationships and durable skills are more valuable than ever in an AI-driven economy.

➤ Cross-Sector Collaboration: Creating opportunities across K-12, tech, and youth-serving sectors to collectively reimagine national service and workforce preparation pathways.

A huge thank you to everyone who joined the conversation in person and online!

16/06/2026

InnovateEDU CEO Erin Mote testified before the Senate Committee on Education & the American Family regarding a critical turning point: The Future of K-12 Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

While the national discourse often treats safety as a hurdle to clear at the expense of transformation, Erin challenges Congress to flip the paradigm. True infrastructure doesn't slow us down; it protects our most valuable assets.

If we permit unmanaged, unfettered cognitive outsourcing in our schools, we risk trading long-term human cognition for short-term outputs. To maintain America’s economic and technological leadership, we must protect a student’s right to the productive struggle and Socratic thinking.

We need immediate public infrastructure and evidence-based benchmarks, like the EDSAFE AI Alliance's Safe by Design framework, to evaluate tools before they are deployed.

Thank you to the Senate Committee for inviting InnovateEDU to this national security and educational imperative. It’s time to move past surface-level guidelines and build a framework that actively safeguards human flourishing.

🔗 Watch the full hearing and read the testimony here: https://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/the-future-of-k-12-education-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence

16/06/2026

Standard classrooms don't fit every brain—and they shouldn't have to.

This Learning Disability Week, we’re spotlighting the educators, specialists, and families navigating IEPs, securing assistive tech, and creating the spaces where students with learning disabilities can truly grow.

True accessibility means shifting from a model of accommodation to one of intentional design. At InnovateEDU, we help bring data systems and tools grounded in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to schools—ensuring accessibility isn't another special initiative, but the baseline for every student.

15/06/2026

How do we build an American education system that truly enables human flourishing?

Our CEO and Founder, Erin Mote, sat down with the "What's Wrong With" podcast hosted by whatissour to answer that very question.

In this episode, Erin shares what it takes to scale various types of uncommon alliances and build lasting systems change across special education, talent development, data modernization, and artificial intelligence.

Listen here: https://www.sour.studio/podcast/how-might-we-enable-human-flourishing-in-american-education-system-ft-erin-mote

12/06/2026

Over 70% of beginning educators consider leaving the profession within their first five years. To build a resilient and sustainable education system, we must invest more in the professionals.

The newly introduced Beginning Educator Mentorship and Retention Act, led by Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Representative Jahana Hayes (D-CT-05), aims to tackle this challenge head-on. The legislation would provide vital funding for school districts to establish or enhance mentoring and induction programs for new teachers and school leaders with less than two years’ experience.

By authorizing competitive grants, the bill ensures states can recruit experienced mentor educators, provide them with compensation and release time, and prioritize high-poverty, rural, and remote areas facing the most significant staffing challenges.

➤ Read the full press release: https://www.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/kaine-hayes-introduce-legislation-to-provide-mentorship-training-to-new-teachers
➤ Explore the bill:https://www.kaine.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/beginning_educator_mentorship_and_retention_act.pdf