Innovation in Action: Volume 19
The Frontlines of Education Innovation
Welcome to Innovation in Action, a one-of-a-kind news brief highlighting transformative voices from the Yass Prize community of awardees. The Yass Prize for Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless education - now in its sixth year - is a rapidly growing effort to find, reward, celebrate and expand best-in-class education organizations from every sector, in every state.
The Yass Prize is committed to fueling more education entrepreneurs to expand their high-quality, STOP-aligned schools, expanding the supply of school options to meet growing parent demand.
When education innovators share what works - whether it’s real-time market data, classroom design, or on a stage at a national conference - students are the ones who benefit. This volume captures Yass Prize leaders doing exactly that: opening their tools, their doors, and their platforms so more students get access to the kind of learning they deserve.
Yass Prize Alumni Take the Stage at ASU+GSV 2026
The Center for Education Reform and Yass Prize alumni showed up in force at ASU+GSV Summit 2026, with at least seven Yass Prize alumni taking the stage across multiple sessions, contributing to some of the week’s most dynamic conversations on innovation, choice, and the future of learning.
Throughout the week, alumni reinforced that education is undergoing a profound shift toward access, customization, and community rooted innovation. Odyssey’s Lauren Bender (2023 Finalist) emphasized that while we are still “in the early innings of choice,” the data already shows expanded access for low income families, paired with a responsibility to ensure families truly have options. Echoing a broader call for change, ASU Preparatory Global’s Amy Mcgrath (2023 Semifinalist) noted, “We really need fundamentally new models. Right now we have marginally new and better charter schools…the sector is healthy but rewarding replication instead of reinvention.” St. George MSU’s Mike Felton (2023 Finalist) highlighted how hands-on, community connected learning can reengage students, noting that “when kids build and create with their hands and their minds, they reengage with their learning,” while Big Picture Learning’s Dr. Sonn Sam (2024 Finalist) underscored that meaningful innovation requires intentional leadership and systems that “honor and cultivate…brilliance within each and every student.”
Other alumni pointed to the scale and urgency of what is ahead. KaiPod Learning’s Amar Kumar (2022 Semifinalist) described a coming “reallocation of capital toward education” alongside the growing complexity schools founders are facing, while Prenda’s Kelly Smith (2022 Quarterfinalist) framed microschools as part of a larger shift toward ingenuity, access, and community driven models. Across sessions, a common thread emerged: if the right people, purpose, and feedback loops are in place, as Primer Microschools’s Ryan Delk (2024 Winner) noted, transformative learning environments can take hold.
Together, these education innovators did not just participate in ASU+GSV but also helped define its central message: the future of education is already being built, and it is more innovative, inclusive, and responsive than ever before.
Watch and listen to session recordings here!
A Cross-Sector Partnership in Neurodivergent Learning
As SOAR Academy (2022 Finalist) prepares to expand into Oklahoma, founder Kenisha Skaggs visited Trinity School (2025 Semifinalist) with a clear purpose: to learn from a peer organization deeply aligned in serving neurodivergent learners. What emerged was more than a school visit. It was a working exchange between leaders grounded in a shared commitment.
Inside Trinity’s classrooms, Skaggs observed a model where project-based learning, multi-sensory instruction, and creative disciplines aren’t enhancements - they’re foundational. Students moved seamlessly from reading therapy to music to hands-on design, reinforcing both skill and confidence. As Skaggs noted, “project-based learning and creative outlets like music are woven into each day… for neurodivergent learners, those opportunities are not extras; they are essential to building confidence, focus, and long-term success.”
For Trinity School, the exchange was equally instructive. CEO Lisa Schade underscored the power of collaboration within the Yass Prize network: “We’ve built Trinity around how students learn, not asking them to adapt to a system that wasn’t designed for them.” She added that sharing ideas across the network is what “accelerates impact for students everywhere.” The takeaway: when leaders align around what works, innovation scales.
Bringing Wall Street Feeds into Student Financial Literacy Simulation
Rapunzl (2022 Finalist), co-founded by Brian Curcio, is expanding its reach with a new partnership integrating Benzinga’s “Bulls Say, Bears Say” feed into its student platform. Through their free financial literacy curriculum and simulated investing app, Rapunzl is equipping students - particularly those from underserved communities - with the tools to think and act like investors. The Benzinga integration adds real-time, balanced market insights, giving students exposure to both bullish and bearish perspectives as they manage their portfolios.
For the more than 100,000+ students who use Rapunzl each year, the addition marks a meaningful shift in how they engage with the market. By presenting both “buy” and “sell” cases for individual stocks, the feature helps connect market activity to real world developments while strengthening critical thinking, risk awareness, and balanced analysis.
Brian Curcio shared, “Most of our students have never been in a room where someone explains why a stock might go up and why it might go down in the same breath. This Benzinga partnership puts that conversation directly in their hands.” As this work continues, the partnership underscores how access to timely data and aligned tools can elevate learning, offering a clear example of how classroom simulations can move closer to the complexity and nuance of real world decision making.
💐 Happy Birthday To…
Charleston Classical Academy (2023 Quarterfinalist) for celebrating their 5th year in operation as the first and only Christ-centered private school in South Carolina to use an indexed tuition model, making a high-quality classical education accessible to students from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
National Fellowship for Black and Latino Male Educators (2023 Finalist) for also celebrating their 5th year as a startup, advancing educational equity by recruiting, developing, and supporting Black and Latino men as educators and leaders committed to transforming outcomes for students and communities.
Learning Center for the Deaf (2024 Semifinalist) for being featured on CBS News as they celebrate their 55th anniversary during National Deaf History Month, providing comprehensive, language-rich education and support services to Deaf and hard-of-hearing children, as well as resources for their families, to ensure full access to communication, learning, and community.
Big Picture Learning (2024 Finalist) celebrating their 30th anniversary, delivering an approach to education grounded in students’ interests and connected to the real world, opening up opportunities for young people to learn through mentorships, experiences, and meaningful engagement with their communities.
What would YOU do with the $1 million Yass Prize?
The $1 million Yass Prize for Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless Education is considered the Pulitzer of education innovation and was established to find, reward, celebrate, and expand best-in-class education organizations for every sector. Since 2021, the Yass Prize and STOP Awards Initiative has awarded over $60 million to more than 225 education organizations from every sector and educational approach in 45 states.
This year, the Yass Prize will identify a select group of STOP-enabled organizations to vie for the $1 million Yass Prize during the prestigious business accelerator. To learn more and apply, visit YassPrize.org and hear directly from cohort members and former speakers why this is the most powerful network in education.
STOP for Education is an initiative focused on developing and expanding the transformational impact of Yass Prize awardees and partners who are dedicated to the four core STOP principles - Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless education. This publication, Innovation in Action, features the latest from best-in-class education providers.
Follow along STOP for Education on X @edreform. Learn more about STOP for Education and CER’s initiatives here.