Events

As educators face tremendous technological, political, and climatic change, EdPrepLab’s 2026 Virtual Forum explores the importance of centering meaningful human relationships as the enduring core of effective teaching, learning, and leading.

There is no one state that holds all the answers to raising student achievement. To plot a strong path forward, we should be asking high-achieving and steeply improving states—red, blue, and purple—what is actually working and how they got there.

This year, EdPrepLab’s Spring Convening invites participants to explore community-engaged educator preparation as a responsive approach to strengthening local relationships, elevating essential histories, and generating transformative possibilities for teaching, learning, and leading.

Investing in effective principals is one of the most powerful strategies administrators and policymakers can use to address chronic absenteeism, mental health challenges, teacher shortages, and learning recovery. Experts from the field and researchers discuss new research and what it means for improving education.

The Learning Policy Institute was well represented at the AERA 2026 Annual Meeting, which took place in Los Angeles, CA, April 8–12, 2026. Staff presented their research on a range of topics, including effective teacher preparation, why teachers leave the profession, and community schools and student outcomes.

In fall 2025, California reached a historic milestone by expanding publicly funded preschool to every 4-year-old. The briefing reviewed California’s first year of universal prekindergarten, highlighting the successes and challenges of increasing access to high-quality early learning within the state’s mixed delivery system.

The EdPrepLab Policy Summit brings together leaders from across educator preparation, practice, and policy to explore pressing issues facing the field and elevate impactful policy solutions in states and in classrooms across the country.

Shifts in federal education funding—including changes to competitive grants and reductions to state formula programs—are reshaping how states support schools and students. This webinar shared key research and reflections from state leaders on navigating complex education funding challenges.

High schools must evolve to meet the needs of today’s students and prepare them for college, careers, and civic life. This webinar shared research on redesign strategies and how both legislators and education leaders play a crucial roles in advancing policies that make schools more relevant and effective.

This in-person briefing brought together education leaders, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss community schools approaches, their impacts, and findings from LPI’s new report—Community Schools Impact on Student Outcomes: Evidence From California.