������Ƶ

Learning ecosystems surround our children every day. These ecosystems are made up of sites of learning that exist in almost every region, city, or county—schools, early learning centers, libraries, parks, museums, public media stations, post-secondary campuses, and local businesses. This infrastructure, combined with the knowledge and talents of family and neighbors, and the portal to new worlds that technology brings, creates connections that can help children climb to new heights each year as they grow into adulthood. 

Ideally, these assets are intentionally intertwined and well-funded, creating ecosystems with learning opportunities that are accessible to all, including students and families facing economic hardship. Ecosystems can produce young adults empowered with agency and creativity, a deeper knowledge base in various subjects, strong collaboration and communication skills, and robust relationships in their communities. These unique human abilities will ensure that young adults are prepared to succeed in the future, no matter what new technologies, AI, and climate change may bring. 

The was born to help realize this vision. We recognize that many inspiring organizations and thought leaders have spent decades reenvisioning learning for the 21st century and putting their theories into practice. We aim to not only synthesize those lessons and continue to learn from leaders at the helm of 12 learning ecosystems across the country, but to add to the evidence base of what works best for learners in their unique communities.

Here are five key questions the commission will grapple with, and summaries of some of the answers our partner organizations and Commissioners have come up with thus far. 

While no consensus definition exists yet, definitions offered in recent reports are weaving together similar threads from themes such as student-driven learning, community engagement, and adaptability to local contexts. Listed below are four examples, in chronological order, of how our Commissioners and colleagues have described learning ecosystems in recent reports:

LearnerStudio, , 2026 – “The destination—a Future-Ready Learning Ecosystem—lets go of a rigid system designed around standardized schooling, to make way for one centered on agentic learning. It’s built by re-architecting three foundational assumptions: what we learn, how and where we learn, and how we support learning. At its core, the new system is a publicly-funded menu of learning experiences—in and beyond school—that are relevant, flexible, mastery-based, and learner-driven.”

Jacobs Foundation and On Think Tanks Consulting, – “Community-led Learning Ecosystems (CLLEs) is used to describe a shift away from narrowly defined schooling models towards more adaptive configurations that recognise multiple sources of knowledge, encourage community engagement, and are responsive to local contexts.”

Education Reimagined and History Co:Lab, – “A learner-centered ecosystem is an adaptive, networked structure that offers a transformed way of organizing, supporting, and credentialing learning that focuses on nurturing the development of whole human beings within caring communities. It provides the conditions for partnership among young learners, their peers, and adults, emphasizing the importance of each learner’s agency and enabling them to make meaningful choices about their learning and their contributions to society.”

Qatar Foundation, World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) & Innovation Unit, , 2019 – “Learning ecosystems comprise diverse combinations of providers (schools, businesses, community organizations as well as government agencies) creating new learning opportunities and pathways to success. They are usually supported by an innovative credentialing system or technology platforms that replace or augment the traditional linear system of examinations and graduation. They need not, however, be confined to their geographic location in terms of resources overall. They may exploit the technologies now available to choreograph global learning resources.” 

In their 2026 report , Merita Irby and Karen Pittman  recommended that intermediaries build active partnerships with educators and schools, develop system-level solutions, and adopt measures of impact that complement traditional assessments. Their report highlighted four mature intermediary organizations acting as ecosystem stewards by prioritizing time for trust-building, developing high-quality learning experiences to improve student outcomes, and co-designing tools that facilitate communication. 

After 15 years of stewarding Pittsburgh’s learning ecosystem, Remake Learning released their in 2023. As an intermediary organization, Remake Learning acts as a network of educators, innovators, and neighbors creating opportunities for student learning and community connection. The tenets that fuel their stewardship and success include relationship building, broadening the definition of learning, co-creating programs with parents, educators, and school leaders, and embracing the small wins that add up to bigger gains. 

Since its launch in 2019, ������Ƶ’s Partnership for Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) has supported over 90 intermediary organizations building and expanding high-quality youth apprenticeship programs in their regions. In their report , PAYA and the Education Strategy Group emphasized the importance of work-based learning intermediaries as a foundational element of youth apprenticeship, and detailed how employers, education institutions, and students, benefit from the continuity, accountability, oversight, and implementation that the intermediaries provide.

In their 2024 publication , Remake Learning leaders described how, in their learning ecosystem, “educators shift from colleagues to neighbors.” Teachers participating in this Pittsburgh initiative are as unbound by school walls as their students. They regularly attend workshops with unstructured time to test new teaching methods, explore new technologies, and learn from their peers, and they attend professional learning and networking sessions to connect with local librarians, technologists, and municipal leaders. Through these outreach activities, educators deepen their own skills and understanding, while broadening their perspective on the assets in the community available to support their students.  

CommunityShare created designed to help educators connect with the members of the community in an effort to expand learning opportunities. Neighbors can create profiles and offer to serve as guest speakers, mentors, field trip hosts, or internship partners. Educators can post events or projects they’d like to host, and search the inventory of local and national experts for those whose skills and experiences are most relevant. CommunityShare also created a , allowing educators to dive deeper into community-engaged learning and develop real-world learning experiences for their students that enrich their classroom instruction. 

One way is to focus first on state-level policy change. Earlier this year, the Alliance for Learning Innovation, Education Reimagined, and Transcend collaborated to publish the , an interactive guide and toolkit for state leaders, local system leaders, policy influencers, and philanthropists seeking to support education innovation. The playbook makes eight recommendations to advance education assessment, research, and development at the state level. They encourage the establishment or modernization of statewide longitudinal data systems, creation of offices dedicated to coordinating and leading R&D, and convening state-wide innovation networks that bridge the efforts of researchers, educators, businesses, policymakers, and communities.

In their 2025 report ,�� Education Reimagined and Remake Learning examined how eight learning ecosystems were leveraging existing policies to promote their ecosystems’ growth and development. For example, that codified , a state-wide ecosystem to create a pipeline for high-tech talent in North Carolina, included flexibility in options for students, ensured students received credit for their work-based learning, and established learning labs with facilitators who design learning experiences, coordinate with local industry, and support interdistrict collaboration. 

The NCLE will convene this April to reflect on these questions and learn from the approaches of 12 regional learning ecosystems. We will be supporting regional leaders in gathering data that relay the voices and experiences of young people and substantiate the growth of their skills, and we aim to translate that evidence in compelling ways for audiences of policymakers and community leaders. Many foundational principles for learning ecosystems have already been laid. We’re eager to add new research and recommendations that can help nascent learning ecosystems grow and existing ones to flourish.