Innovation in Action: Volume 21
Building What's Next: Opening Doors and Changing Lives
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, with a commitment to fueling more education entrepreneurs to expand their high-quality organizations and schools.
The leaders in this volume aren’t just imagining a better education system; they’re building it and inspiring others along the way.
Opening Doors for Innovation: 2024 Yass Prize Winner Reimagines the Rules
When Primer Microschools won the $1 million Yass Prize in 2024, it gave Executive Director Lisa Tarshis a front-row seat to education innovators nationwide working to open new schools. This is when Tarshis kept hearing the same story: founders with proven models, strong family demand, and the vision to grow being blocked by outdated regulations, not by a lack of educators or funding. Zoning restrictions, building codes, and occupancy requirements built for large traditional schools were preventing small, innovative ones from opening at all. The result: families with scholarships and school choice funding had nowhere to use them.
This realization inspired the creation of Schools for America, a national advocacy organization co-founded by Tarshis, focused exclusively on removing the regulatory barriers that limit school growth and restrict educational opportunity. This year, they partnered with Teach Coalition to help pass Florida’s SB 182, a landmark law that will allow private schools serving fewer than 150 students to operate by right in mixed-use and commercial spaces while streamlining compliance requirements. The legislation, which takes effect July 1, is expected to reduce school launch timelines from one to two years down to just three to five months and lower startup costs by 50-80%. They are currently supporting implementation efforts across the state, conducting regulatory audits in Texas and Alabama, and collaborating with partners in Pennsylvania to pursue similar reforms.
“Winning the Yass Prize was a turning point,” shared Tarshis. “Being surrounded by the most innovative educators in the country made one thing clear: the demand for new schools is real, but the supply is not keeping up. Families are holding scholarships they cannot use, while great founders are ready to serve students but are being stopped by regulations that were never designed for today’s school models. Schools for America was built to close that gap.”
Building South Texas’ Future Healthcare Workforce: And Some Are Already Hired
2024 Finalist Rural Schools Innovation Zone (RSIZ) has partnered with CHRISTUS Spohn Health System to create something more than a traditional community partnership. Together, they are building direct pathways for rural students to explore and enter high demand healthcare careers. Through paid internships, work based learning opportunities, and hands-on experiences across multiple hospital departments, students gain firsthand exposure to the healthcare industry while developing valuable technical and professional skills.
The results speak for themselves: two former RSIZ students from the Next Generation Medical Academy are now employed at CHRISTUS Spohn Health System. When students observe professionals, explore specialties, and gain real workplace experience, the classroom-to-career transition isn’t a leap - it’s a natural next step.
“Having two former RSIZ students represented in this partnership is a testament to what is possible when rural students are given access, opportunity, and support. Through the guidance and training provided by the Next Generation Medical Academy staff, these students acquired the technical knowledge, professional skills, and workplace readiness necessary to secure employment and succeed in the healthcare field,” shared Executive Director, Michael Gonzalez.
Their success proves that meaningful careers are within reach for students in rural communities, and the partnerships that RSIZ are offering create a definitive blueprint for how education and industry can build lasting workforce pipelines together.
Judging is Underway: The 2026 Yass Prize Competition Moves Forward
The 2026 Yass Prize application window is officially closed, and the team is inspired by the extraordinary organizations that answered the call to apply.
This summer, every application will enter a rigorous, multi-tiered judging process. A massive shout out to the Yass Prize alumni and connectors nationwide who referred applicants, amplified the prize, and will show up as second-round judges during one of the busiest times of the school year. Your dedication to this network is everything.
Save the date: The 2026 Yass Prize Contender Announcement is coming on Wednesday, August 12th, when the sixth Yass Prize cohort will be revealed via national live stream live from Forbes on Fifth before heading to the fall Accelerator to compete for the $1 million Yass Prize.
Read the full press release here.
3 Forbes Articles Worth Your Time
Why Miles Davis Would be a Better Leadership Coach than More Consultants
The Leaders Who Will Thrive in the Next Decade Think More Like Jazz Musicians Than Executives
Written by Keith Brooks (National Fellowship for Black and Latino Male Educators, 2023 Finalist)
Beyond the Score: Why Growth Matters More than Performance
A single test score can’t capture how a child learns or how far they’ve grown. It’s time for schools to measure what truly matters.
Written by Lisa Schade (Trinity School, 2025 Semifinalist)
You Can’t Expand Education Freedom Without Fixing How You Fund It
How Funding Models Are Limiting the Growth of High-Quality Schools
Written by Tee Wilson (B.E. Academy for Girls, 2025 Semifinalist)
💐 Congrats To…
Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy (2025 Semifinalist) for their efforts on leading a student-run “Victory Over Violence” week, pulling together workshops on conflict resolution, mental health awareness, and community safety, along with peer-led outreach ahead of summer in response to an unfortunately tragic weekend in their Milwaukee community.
Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies (2024 Semifinalist) for their public shoutout during Charter School Week as North Carolina marks 30 years of public charter schools. In a recent episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, student leaders from NEAAAT share how student voice shapes their school’s learning model.
RCMA (2022 Semifinalist) for the renewal of their charter contract this June, signing a 15 year charter agreement with Collier County Public Schools. They earned this through back-to-back “A” school grades from the FLDOE and designation as a Florida high performing charter school, the only dual language high achieving school in the county.
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.