Research

Access a raw data file with all information from the Canopy crowdsourcing process in 2022-23.

The Canopy is a collaborative effort to surface a diverse set of innovative learning environments, and document the designs that they are implementing. This memo describes the methodology used to collect data for the project in SY2023-24.

Explore examples of how to use the Canopy data and instructions for how to filter and search the data portal. Let us know what you discover!

Access the full list of Canopy tags. These tags were designed by the project advisors and stewarding organizations to attempt to describe the most common innovative elements observed in schools across the country.

Access the contents of the survey sent to all nominated schools. Schools used this survey to pick the Canopy tags that described their models. Schools responded in February 2024.

Access the contents of the survey sent to all nominating organizations. Nominators were asked to identify schools that had built exemplary innovative models and describe why they chose to nominate them.

Access a raw data file with all information from the Canopy crowdsourcing process in 2022-23.

Access a raw data file with all information from the Canopy crowdsourcing process in 2021-22.

Students learn about and practice social justice. Teachers design instruction and curriculum to support students who have been marginalized by using culturally relevant materials and developing students’ independence as learners.

Students participate in career- related learning, such as internships or apprenticeships, and the school encourages and guides them through career exploration. Students can often begin earning college credit in high school through early-college models, and can receive credit for learning experiences outside traditional classrooms.

Students show their skills and knowledge through performance assessments rather than traditional tests. Instead of earning credit for learning by finishing a time-based course and getting a passing grade, they earn credit by demonstrating that they’ve mastered specific skills or content.

Students move through learning activities at their own pace, advance when they’re ready, and follow an individual learning path rather than progressing at the same pace as the entire class. Many pursue their studies partly through online learning and partly in-person.

Read key findings from schools pursuing equitable, student-centered learning in 2023. 

Changing the DNA of how schools educate students is hard, long-term work. A diverse set of 251 schools are showing what that work looks like (as featured in The74).

Education leaders share their strategies, including a microschool for indigenous students and partnership with an early learning center for pregnant and parenting students (District Administration, Micah Ward).

What it looks like to embrace the strengths, passions and needs of each student, particularly those who have been historically underserved.

A new Canopy project report shows how innovative schools are designing more equitable education systems.

From a Lakota-focused microschool to service opportunities for kids with disabilities, examples from Canopy of how innovators are focusing on the needs of marginalized students (as featured in The74).

Among the lessons from COVID-19 in the K–12 sector, one is this: we can never again say that schools haven’t changed in a hundred years.

What works for some doesn’t work for all, and what’s working for those on the margins could be completely unknown.

This initial stage of the Canopy demonstrates how a process designed to advance collective knowledge has the potential to unveil a more diverse, complete picture of K-12 school innovation.

A future beyond test scores alone: Innovative schools need support to measure other learning outcomes.

Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages

What works for some doesn’t work for all, and what’s working for those on the margins could be completely unknown.