Deeper Learning 2026

Pre-conferences require a separate registration fee of $250. Please purchase your pre-conference ticket here: https://buytickets.at/hightechhighgse/store

Experience the science process through phenomena and personal curiosity, discovering the joy of figuring things out along the way and then raise questions that can lead to insightful investigations. Learn pedagogy related to scanning and facilitating the turning of non-investigable questions into deeper scientific questions.

Join us for our annual GSE Mixer before we kick off the Deeper Learning Conference! This gathering brings together alumni, current students, faculty, and prospective students interested in the work of High Tech High’s Graduate School of Education.

Reconnect with former cohort members, meet the people behind our credential & degree programs, and learn more about the pathways available through HTH GSE including:

• M.Ed. in Educational Leadership 

• Preliminary Administrative Services Credential 

• San Diego Teacher Residency 

Continental breakfast, refreshments, and exclusive GSE swag will be provided.

This student-run Makers Market will feature student entrepreneurs from the local community. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to meet these young entrepreneurs. Check out their products and learn how they are using entrepreneurship to engage in deeper learning.

Schools need more AI. And by AI, we mean Arts Integration, Ancestral Intelligence, Abundant Imagination and Artificial Intelligence. At our opening event, hear from educators and leaders who will speak to each of these important forms of AI.

Arts Integration
Marimar Patrón Vázquez, is a cultural innovator and educator who co-founded Habla: The Center for Language and Culture in Yucatán, México, where she was born and her family lived for generations. Trained in literature at Universidad de las Américas and Brown University, she has been recognized with Brown’s Presidential Teaching Award. She directs Habla’s programs weaving storytelling, cultures, reading, and the arts into language learning to create transformative learning experiences. Her approach foregrounds translanguaging and culturally sustaining strategies: she supports learners in drawing on their full linguistic repertoires, using story, movement, visual arts and multimodal composition to build meaning, identity, and voice across languages. Marimar helps design the Habla Teacher Institute and presents workshops internationally. The greatest lessons she’s learned about teaching are from her children, who are growing up bilingual.

Ancestral Intelligence
Dr. Stanley Rodriguez also serves on the board of Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival and is active in cultural events across the region. Named a 2015 American Indian Heritage Month Local Hero by Union Bank and KPBS, he continues to champion Indigenous knowledge and cultural resilience with unwavering commitment.

Abundant Imagination
Dina Buchbinder is the Founder and President of Education for Sharing (E4S), a global nonprofit transforming education through the power of play. For over 18 years, E4S has engaged more than two million children, educators, and families across the Americas, fostering empathy, collaboration, and civic agency through a Play–Reflect–Act methodology that connects learning to sustainability and real-world impact. A National Geographic Explorer and Ashoka Fellow, Dina leads initiatives like Nature for Sharing to inspire environmental stewardship and systems thinking from childhood. As a social entrepreneur and advocate for joyful, inclusive learning, she builds bridges between education, science, and civic engagement. Dina believes deeper learning emerges when curiosity, creativity, and care meet action—when learners see themselves as protagonists of change.

Artificial Intelligence
Kwaku Aning is the Founder and Principal of Retro Futurism Consulting where he leverages 25 years of experience across education, corporate, and non-profit sectors to help organizations: transform how they build and leverage networks, maximize conference and gathering opportunities, create lasting partnerships that drive change, facilitate meaningful connections that scale impact in corporate and nonprofit sectors. This work has taken Kwaku to national and international stages, where he has presented and participated in panels on the future of education, design, social impact,  and technology. Whether it’s discussing AI, Blockchain, Virtual Reality, or Augmented Reality at events like the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 23), Comic Con, Social Innovation Summit, or SXSWedu, he is always eager to share insights and explore new ways to create lasting impact.

To find your Community Advisory location, check Sched for the classroom location for your deep dive session. That is where you will meet for the four Community Advisory sessions (and your deep dive)!

Your Deep Dive colleagues will become your small group for four sessions during the event. This session will connect you to the other folks that you'll be learning with in your Deep Dive.

Intentional small-by-design sessions throughout the event create an opportunity to build relationships, process experiences from the event, and discuss, plan, and act toward the future. Highly recommended for promoting lasting relationships with other amazing deeper learners around the world!

As part of our extended Community Advisory, we have three 45-minute experiences led by K-12 students. Each participant will choose which experience to attend during this first advisory session.

1. Participate in a typical Exhibition of Learning and hear K-12 students reflect on the impact of past projects.
2. Learn from students’ experiences during one of the student-led panels.
3. Explore the halls of HTH Point Loma schools on a student-guided tour.

All of these experiences will be debriefed in Advisory using the AI lenses — Ancestral Intelligence, Abundant Imagination, Arts Integration, and Artificial Intelligence.

What if schools moved beyond protection toward innovation to truly accompany immigrant and multilingual students on their educational journeys? In this Den conversation, Lara Evangelista, Executive Director of the Internationals Network for Public Schools, and Chandler Patton Miranda, author of Sanctuary School, explore how schools serving newly arrived students have reimagined deeper learning as a culturally sustaining and empowering practice for some of the country’s most marginalized youth. Drawing on decades of research and practice, they discuss how the Internationals approach to school design, project-based learning, and portfolio assessment fosters collaboration, critical thinking, and deeper learning. Together, they illuminate what it takes to resist unjust policies and hostile social contexts, ensuring that newcomers and multilingual learners can thrive in school and beyond.

About the Den Speakers:

Chandler Patton Miranda, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Education at Molloy University and an anthropologist of education whose work examines how schools serve recently arrived immigrant youth in an ever-changing political climate. A former high school teacher, her research explores how educators move beyond protection to create inclusive, empowering schools that reflect the principles of deeper learning. Her book, Sanctuary School (Harvard Education Press, 2025), about one Internationals Network high school, draws on ethnographic research to illustrate how educators resist exclusionary policies through care, creativity, and collective leadership. Chandler’s scholarship has been published in journals such as Harvard Educational Review, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, and Equity & Excellence in Education. Her work invites educators to reimagine schools as places of belonging, innovation, and renewal for immigrant youth.

Lara Evangelista is the Executive Director of Internationals Network, a national nonprofit that partners with public school systems to design and sustain multilingual learning environments for newcomer immigrant students that are grounded in deeper learning, whole-child practices. During her 28 years in New York City Public Schools (NYCPS), Lara led transformative work to improve outcomes for Multilingual Learners (MLLs) as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and district leader. She served as a founding team member and then principal of The Flushing International High School and later as Deputy Superintendent for the Consortium, Internationals, and NYC Outward Bound Schools (CIOB) District in NYC. Lara holds degrees in languages and education from Georgetown University, New School University, Hunter College, and Teachers College, Columbia University, where she is a doctoral candidate in the Urban Educational Leadership program.

Every leader wants deeper learning for students—but turning that vision into reality takes more than inspiration. It takes culture, structure, and courage. In this informal Den Talk, Lisa Mireles—author of Project Based Learning for All: A Leader’s Guide—invites you to dig into what it really looks like to lead school and system-wide change. Hear stories of schools that are doing it, reflect on your own leadership journey, and join a candid discussion about what’s hard, what’s hopeful, and what’s next for making PBL accessible to every student.

About the Den Speakers:

Dr. Lisa Mireles is the Managing Director of Digital Curriculum and Special Advisor to the CEO at PBLWorks and the co-author of Project Based Learning for All: A Leader's Guide, published in December 2025 by ASCD/ISTE.
A seasoned teacher, school principal, and district leader, she has a special interest in creating learner-centered ecosystems that amplify the powerful intersection of leadership, project based learning, and technology. She has taught and led in schools in California, Indonesia, India, and Hawai`i. Lisa was a founding Board Member for the Hawai`i Society of Technology in Education (HSTE) and co-founded the Kaua`i Educational Leadership Alliance (KELA).
Lisa holds both a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles. She earned her doctorate in Learning Technologies from Pepperdine University.

Bob Lenz became CEO of PBLWorks in 2015, leading the organization’s mission to ensure high-quality Project Based Learning reaches all students. Before joining PBLWorks, he co-founded Envision Education and served as its CEO and Chief of Innovation, pioneering a successful school redesign model that expanded college access for underserved students. He also launched Envision Learning Partners, which supports schools and districts nationwide in building college and career readiness through performance assessment. A nationally recognized leader in deeper learning and high school redesign, Bob was a Senior Deeper Learning Fellow with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and author of Transforming Schools: Using Project-Based Learning, Performance Assessment, and Common Core Standards. Earlier in his career, he founded Academy X, an award-winning humanities and leadership program. Bob lives and works in San Rafael, California.

Note: This is a Crossover Session that is featured at the National Summit on Improvement in Education. Attendees from both conferences can attend this session, so there will be a mix of participants from Deeper Learning and from Summit.

Deeper Learning is a set of powerful outcomes for students. Continuous Improvement is a set of powerful methods to achieve better outcomes. Deeper Learning needs continuous improvement and continuous improvement needs deeper learning. Join a discussion with three leaders who have been working to support schools to both achieve deeper learning outcomes and to enact the principles and methods of continuous improvement. Where are these efforts in tension? Where do they support one another?

About the Speakers
Ben Daley joined High Tech High to teach physics as a founding faculty member in fall 2000. He has been a school director, chief operating officer, and chief academic officer for High Tech High and is now the president of the Graduate School of Education. As a student at Haverford College, Ben majored in physics and was credentialed in secondary physics and math, student teaching at Lower Merion High School outside Philadelphia. After graduation, he traveled to the Philippines and taught science and math at an international school in Manila. Upon his return to the U.S., he taught physics and AP physics at the Madeira School, a girls’ boarding school in suburban Washington, D.C. He then moved to California to coach basketball and to teach physics at Pomona and Pitzer Colleges. He earned an M.A. in Science Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership at UC San Diego.

Jim May is the president & CEO of New Tech Network (NTN), a national education nonprofit transforming K-12 public education. Since joining NTN in 2011 as a School Development Coach, he has held multiple leadership roles, returning in 2022 after a brief hiatus to co-lead the organization before assuming his current position.
Previously, Jim was a founding staff member and principal at Two Rivers Public Charter School in Washington, DC. He began his career as a high school social studies teacher and soccer coach in South Carolina. A committed education leader, he has been a Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholar, an education policy fellow at the Institute for Educational Leadership, a fellow at the National Center for Leadership, and, most recently a Pahara Fellow. He holds degrees from Presbyterian College and The George Washington University and is an alumnus of the Stanford EdLeaders program.
Outside of work, Jim serves on multiple nonprofit boards and is deeply involved in coaching youth soccer. Jim lives in El Paso, TX  with his wife, Evan, and their three children.

Ash Vasudeva is the Education Program Director at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Previously, Vasudeva served as President and CEO of ConnectED: The National Center for College and Career, where he championed the organization’s efforts to improve students’ social and economic mobility through high-quality college and career pathways. Prior to ConnectED, Vasudeva was senior VP at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He was also a senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, served as co-executive director of Stanford University’s School Redesign Network, was a senior research associate at WestED, and taught science at Pasadena High School. Ash received a B.S. in History from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. in Urban Schooling from UCLA.

About the National Summit on Improvement in Education:
The National Summit on Improvement in Education is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

In this session geared toward school leaders and teachers, you will experience an innovative peer-coaching practice that has proven to connect educators, address burnout, and turbo-charge communities in schools across the U.S.

In this 90-minute session, educators will experience Forum — a peer-to-peer coaching practice that supports well-being, deepens trust, and empowers educators to proactively address their own needs. Come learn how this coaching practice has transformed an East Coast school’s community, and leave with practical resources to bring back to your own staff.

Physical, temporal, and technological contexts of schooling constitute the "third teacher" in education. Too often, these environments work against our learning goals. Authentic learning doesn’t respect the constraints of classroom walls. Community learning experiences get stymied by bureaucracy. Collaboration collides with regimented teacher and student schedules. Efforts to design active learning within traditional school structures face constraints of time, space, and technology. In this interactive workshop for teachers and school leaders, participants will explore creative strategies to break down these barriers. Drawing on XQ Design Principles and inspired by student testimonials and artifacts of learning, we engage in an intensive design process to uncover opportunities to adapt even the most rigid learning environment. Participants will leave with a plan to create space for innovation in any school.

Students and community service – passengers or drivers? Shift the mindset from "have to" to "want to" by empowering students as architects of change. This interactive session provides a proven framework for to having students identify needs, create plans, secure seed funding and mentor student-designed initiatives. Through real-world case studies and collaborative planning, you will gain practical strategies and a concrete roadmap to launch student-led service projects in your own community.

This interactive workshop, led by Education for Sharing (E4S), invites participants to experience how play can be a powerful driver of equity, student agency, and belonging. Using E4S’s Play–Reflect–Act methodology, educators will engage in hands-on games and challenges that model social-emotional learning practices while fostering deeper learning. Through playful collaboration and guided reflection, participants will explore ways to design classrooms where all students feel seen, valued, and empowered to shape their learning journeys and exercise their voices. The session balances interactive activities, small-group dialogue, and whole-group discussion, ensuring participants experience and practice strategies they can immediately apply. Participants will leave with practical, adaptable tools to create joyful, student-centered spaces that nurture curiosity, build community, and promote equitable outcomes.

What if every story leapt off the page and onto the stage? In this energetic workshop, discover how drama can transform literacy learning. Through movement, voice and imagination, students build confidence, expand vocabulary and strengthen communication skills. Participants will experience process drama strategies using quality texts, exploring how arts-rich pedagogy deepens understanding, empathy, and intercultural awareness. Learn practical ways to weave drama into your teaching from Primary to Middle Years - making learning more meaningful, memorable and alive!

Explore the strategies and resources NYC Outward Bound Schools is using to shift Crews and classrooms to be more student-led. The combination of establishing strong, predictable routines and prioritizing student-designed content creates the conditions for students to feel ownership and belonging in school. Grounding in NYC Outward Bound Schools’ Student Voice Spectrum and a multi-media case study of a student leader’s growth in her Crew class, participants will design their own mini-lessons using the same tools students use and will learn strategies to implement in their own school contexts to elevate student leadership. Ideal for educators looking to meaningfully elevate student leadership in Crew/Advisory and classrooms.

Note: This DL session also invites attendees from the National Summit on Improvement in Education to participate. Summit is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

What does it take for every student to feel they truly matter? In this interactive session, inspired by the Odyssey Leadership Academy model, participants will engage in hands-on activities, reflective dialogue, and collaborative design to explore how belonging drives deeper learning. Together we’ll practice strategies for centering student voice, amplifying agency, and embedding equity into everyday learning. Through playful community-building and guided reflection, participants will experience the practices that foster mattering—connection, visibility, and care. By the end, you’ll leave with practical tools to cultivate classrooms and schools where belonging is not a byproduct, but the foundation of flourishing.

This session is for teachers, school leaders, and district teams seeking concrete, equity-centered strategies to create joyful, inclusive ecosystems of learning where every student is seen, valued, and essential.

Note: This DL session also invites attendees from the National Summit on Improvement in Education to participate. Summit is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

Learning environments are often designed without the voices of our most important stakeholders: the people we are meant to serve. Imagine instead working together with families to identify needs, co-create solutions, and celebrate growth. If you’re a school leader seeking to foster these genuine connections, join us to experience community rap sessions, a culturally responsive practice that creates space for every voice to be heard. This session begins engaging educators as learners in an immersive experience, then shifts to the structures and planning needed to implement community rap sessions in your own school. Together, we will examine how these practices can become a routine way to engage families and community members meaningfully. As a Deeper Learning by Doing® experience, leave with concrete tools and strategies, personal action steps, contacts for follow-up coaching, and greater confidence to authentically partner with families and communities.

Curiosity has been treated as something to manage, contain, or redirect, yet we now recognize it as a critical driver of learning. In this provocation lab, participants will study a range of examples from a variety of contexts and analyze how and why they work to spark and sustain inquiry. Together, we will explore the design moves that place curiosity at the center of instruction and clarify what distinguishes a true provocation from a simple hook, focusing on experiences that require thinking, discourse, and questioning. This session is for teachers and leaders ready to shift from delivering information to creating conditions that invite exploration. Participants will leave with practical tools and a clear framework for designing lessons that nurture curiosity as a durable learning disposition.

This workshop showcases how real-world learning, equity, and interdisciplinary design come together in powerful project-based experiences for secondary students. Grounded in iLEAD’s innovative blend of IB, CTE, and Deeper Learning, participants will engage with planning frameworks and tools that support students in solving authentic community problems, developing career-ready skills, and amplifying their voice. The focus is on intentional project design—where equity, community partnerships, and student agency drive meaningful learning.

What if students could be more engaged because they understood what you were assessing—and why? How do we keep middle schoolers truly invested in their learning? In this workshop, educators will explore how authentic, collaborative assessment—when connected to real-world challenges and student interests—can transform classroom culture and deepen learning. We’ll examine a middle school project that sparked curiosity, built essential skills, and led to meaningful work, while highlighting how student voice and choice played a key role in both the process and the assessment. Discover how inviting students into the assessment conversation can make their thinking more visible, foster ownership, and drive deeper engagement. You will leave the workshops with tools, strategies, and inspiration to co-create learning experiences that matter—to you and your students.

In today’s world, what you plan for now may be upended by new forces tomorrow. Educational policies shift quickly, AI is transforming how learning happens, and geopolitical and environmental pressures are adding new layers of complexity. Your school community looks to you to lead through uncertainty with clarity and confidence.
In this interactive workshop, you will have dedicated time, tools, and opportunities for peer collaboration to help you navigate competing challenges with agility and purpose. Through case studies, real-time scenarios, and focused problem-solving conversations, you’ll explore practical frameworks for making high-stakes decisions, communicating clearly with your community, and keeping your school aligned with its mission—even when the road ahead is uncertain.
This highly relevant, active session designed to help future-ready leaders build resilient, responsive, and mission-driven schools in an era of uncertainty.

Note: This DL session also invites attendees from the National Summit on Improvement in Education to participate. Summit is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

What does it mean to meet the human needs of students and educators? What choices can we make—as leaders, teachers, and people—to create deeper learning environments that meet this moment in history with respect for the humanity and intellect of our communities? In 2024, Libby Woodfin and Jal Mehta embarked on a research project to discover, describe, and share the qualities of human schools. Through stories and examples from schools across the U.S. involved in this research, participants will explore the impact that more (or less) human choices have on the experiences of students and adults in schools. Participants will leave with an understanding of the 10 Principles of Human Schools and practical steps they can take to bring these principles to life in their own settings. Note: Jal Mehta will attend and contribute to the session but is not a presenter.

This workshop explores how to create clear, standards-based learning targets that strengthen project-based learning and reflect a school’s mission. As a new administrator in a PBL-focused school, I quickly recognized the need to strengthen how learning connects meaningfully to both academic standards and the school’s mission. By intentionally aligning learning targets with the mission, we move beyond a statement posted on the wall to a living guide for instruction, assessment, and student growth. Participants will see how this approach deepens the impact of project-based learning, strengthens coherence across school practices, and solidifies the school’s identity as a mission-driven, PBL-centered community. In addition, I will co-present with a consultant who has been working with me to make this change at our school.  She will share an external perspective on how this process supports instructional alignment, as well as the challenges and opportunities it presents for schools and educators.

Note: This DL session also invites attendees from the National Summit on Improvement in Education to participate. Summit is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

This session introduces Neighborhood Walks as a powerful entry point into a community-connected, place-based learning experience. Drawing on WPS Institute partnerships with urban schools in Massachusetts, we’ll engage with student voices that illuminate the dimensions of learning, connection, and engagement that can happen when young people step outside the classroom. Participants will then experience a Neighborhood Walk near the conference site, guided by simple lenses such as Making a Living or Being in Community. Along the way, you’ll practice skills that scaffold student confidence for learning in the wider world.
Together, we’ll identify the skills and mindsets students develop through these immersions, and leave with practical tools to create neighborhood walks for your own schools and communities.

Note: This DL session also invites attendees from the National Summit on Improvement in Education to participate. Summit is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

In this session, participants will learn about the student experience through the coping process. Whether you're a school leader, classroom teacher, parent/caregiver, or student this session will offer fresh insights and strategies to help navigate stress, foster well-being, and enhance engagement. Participants will leave with concrete ways to support adaptive coping at home and at school. Come learn from what students are saying in our national data and how coping impacts their ability to thrive in our schools!

Note: This DL session also invites attendees from the National Summit on Improvement in Education to participate. Summit is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

Note: This is a Crossover Session that is featured at the National Summit on Improvement in Education. Attendees from both conferences can attend this session, so there will be a mix of participants from Deeper Learning and from Summit.

The University of Chicago’s Network for College Success has partnered with 14–18 Chicago high schools for over a decade, helping principals and leadership teams strengthen collaboration to support student success. Recently, the network introduced adaptive 1:1 check-ins between principals and their direct reports. This routine clarifies roles, reduces work duplication, strengthens accountability, and creates consistent opportunities for reciprocal feedback. As principals adopt this approach, schools will see clearer roles, improved initiative follow-through, stronger staff engagement, and healthier learning cultures that advance student outcomes. In this interactive workshop, participants will examine case studies from two large Chicago high schools, explore research, and practice tools such as a “Buckets of Work” mapping protocol, leaving with strategies to apply adaptive check-ins in their own leadership contexts.

About the National Summit on Improvement in Education:
The National Summit on Improvement in Education is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

Note: This is a Crossover Session that is featured at the National Summit on Improvement in Education. Attendees from both conferences can attend this session, so there will be a mix of participants from Deeper Learning and from Summit.

Imagine students who are nearly twice as likely to earn a college credential, all because they had access to experiences that showed them what’s possible. At Embarc, we create transformative learning experiences that connect students to people, places, and opportunities beyond the classroom, paired with action and reflection tools that turn inspiration into real life postsecondary possibilities. These are not your average field trips; they are intentional partnerships that shift mindsets and open doors. In this interactive session, you’ll learn about the model Embarc uses to craft experiences. You’ll leave with a powerful framework to elevate experiential learning in your own school community. Walk away ready to design opportunities for you students that spark curiosity and drive measurable postsecondary outcomes for your students.

About the National Summit on Improvement in Education:
The National Summit on Improvement in Education is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

Note: This is a Crossover Session that is featured at the National Summit on Improvement in Education. Attendees from both conferences can attend this session, so there will be a mix of participants from Deeper Learning and from Summit.

Join NTC in exploring how to leverage learning walks across classrooms to deepen adult understanding of the student experience. Over the past five years, NTC worked with diverse educational entities through a federally funded Education Innovation and Research grant, exploring how educators can advance SEL integrated with rigorous content through a whole-school professional learning model. Participants will learn how to connect targeted classroom observation data to student surveys to broaden perspective of the student experience and inform educator coaching. Participants will:
1) Learn from a video detailing impact on school leaders, coach, teacher, and student relationships and work
2) Practice leveraging NTC observation indicators
3) Experience a Learning Walk debrief protocol to connect observation notes to necessary shifts in educator practice to positively impact student experience
4) Plan how to apply takeaways to individual context

About the National Summit on Improvement in Education:
The National Summit on Improvement in Education is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

Note: This is a Crossover Session that is featured at the National Summit on Improvement in Education. Attendees from both conferences can attend this session, so there will be a mix of participants from Deeper Learning and from Summit.

Scaling deeper learning is a complex challenge, not a complicated one, demanding a fundamental shift in leadership mindset. This 90-minute workshop explores why the continuous improvement mindset, often viewed as better suited for complicated problems, requires a key leadership shift to be effective in this complex domain. Participants will workshop 2-3 common deeper learning challenges (e.g., student agency, quality feedback) and use a structured routine to frame them as improvable problems. Attendees leave with tools, resources, and a shift in mindset to use in their systems.

About the National Summit on Improvement in Education:
The National Summit on Improvement in Education is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

What if school systems were engines of continuous research and design, learning alongside students and educators to create equitable futures? In this hands-on session, Dr. Devin Vodicka and Dr. Katie Martin—co-founders and co-CEOs of Learner-Centered Collaborative—will invite participants to explore what an embedded R&D strategy looks like at scale. Through interactive dialogue, case studies of learner-centered innovations, and collaborative design activities, participants will identify conditions that allow change to spread: shared vision, leadership, and a culture grounded in learner voice. Together, we’ll surface bright spots, co-create strategies for scaling innovation, and leave with renewed joy and practical tools to drive sustainable, equitable change.

Note: This DL session also invites attendees from the National Summit on Improvement in Education to participate. Summit is a gathering and rallying point for a vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive. In 2026, we're bringing together the powerful Deeper Learning and Improvement communities through select crossover sessions, culminating in a joint closing keynote. You are invited to dive deeper and make new connections at DL26. Check out our Summit and DL26 comparison to learn more.

Research shows that trust is initiated in a cascade of internal chemical reactions that open the doorway to unsurpassed teamwork, strong relationships, and a boost in mental health.
This session is ideal for leaders committed to cultivating more joy, generosity, and connection in their schools and classrooms.
Participants will be treated to activities, games, and reflective prompts that practice developing trust .
Attendees will leave with 3 simple activities, and endless iterations, to bring back to your schools to foster fun and connection, resulting in trust and transformation.

Join us for a waterfront reception, featuring local restaurants in a farmer's market style dinner, dining alfresco (wear layers!), music, dancing and drinks. Don't forget your drink tickets!