As a new school year begins, we were honored to be included in District Administration’s predictions for the 2025-2026 school year. Two of our AERDF leaders shared insights about what promises to be a watershed moment in education. District Administration asked AERDF to share our predictions about what factors will define the 2025-26 school year.
“The education system is not built for rapid change, and faces the challenge of integrating one of the fastest-moving, most transformative technologies of our lifetime,” shared Sasha Rabkin, Chief of Program Strategy and Innovation at AERDF. “This calls for new investments, new laboratories and new kinds of partnerships and structures that invite us to reimagine the essential role of education in a healthy, vibrant society.”
There is no time to wait. AI technologies are rapidly shifting the way we learn, work and interact. Education, like all fields, has significant questions to answer not just about how we integrate this technology but also why and under what conditions we choose to do so. We are beyond debates about whether or not AI has a place in education. It is here. Our education system will need to make creative and forward reaching investments in its systems, processes, and networks to iterate at the speed of technology. This is one reason we are so proud of the recent launch of our newest program AugmentED led by Sherry Lachman.
Rebecca Kockler, Executive Director of Reading Reimagined, one of our flagship R&D programs, predicts this coming school year will have a greater focus on foundational literacy instruction to end decades of stagnation through targeted support for teachers and students. Additionally, national assessments continue to show that only 30% of eighth graders are proficient in reading. She and the team at Magpie Literacy, the nonprofit launched to scale the insights she developed at AERDF, are set to partner with hundreds of schools this year to make headway with thousands of students on this once intractable problem.
Read the article to see what factors education experts are predicting will shape our schools this coming year.
