Innovation in Action: Volume 23
Evolving to Meet the Moment: Education Models Built for Today’s Students
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.
This volume tracks a shift already underway - education evolving toward what students and employers actually need, while opening doors for more families in the process.
Advancing Education Freedom in Texas: Yass Prize Alumni Expand Opportunities for Families
As we approach the new school year, the Texas Education Freedom Award recipients are turning early momentum into tangible progress for families. After eleven Yass Prize alumni received more than $4 million collectively to launch and expand their proven education models across Texas last October, these school leaders and teams are preparing to open up, turning ESA dollars into real options for families.
ASU Preparatory Global (2023 Semifinalist) is guiding almost two dozen microschool founders through their fellowship program, all preparing to open this fall. In Brownsville, Build UP (2022 Semifinalist) is renovating their new workforce-development community school, helping dozens of prospective families along the way complete the ESA application process. Leading Little Arrows (2023 Quarterfinalist) has also fully staffed their first new microschool learning environment for students with disabilities in Tyler, and expects to serve double the amount of neurodivergent learners come September.
At the same time, other awardees are helping ensure that families can understand and access the opportunities created by Texas’s new education freedom program. Families Empowered (2023 Semifinalist) has reached 1.5 million families statewide, using both virtually and in-person methods, with the goals of supporting families in navigating the state’s new education landscape. Finally, Partnership Schools (2021 Semifinalist) successfully identified two Diocese of Dallas schools, as they work to partner and turn around under-enrolled and failing schools. And this is only the beginning. Yass Prize alumni aren’t just building schools - they’re building the awareness, partnerships, and support that get families through the door in the Lone Star state.
Four School Districts & One Academic Mission: Building the Healthcare Workforce in Western Pennsylvania
The Healthcare Career Academy at Franklin Regional School District (2025 Semifinalist) treats high school not as a launchpad before a career, but as the start of one. Beginning this fall, the Academy will bring together Franklin Regional, Allegheny Health Network, Northern Westmoreland Career & Technology Center, Westmoreland County Community College, and neighboring school districts to create a new regional model for career-connected learning. Students from four districts will participate in a daily experiential learning block focused on healthcare careers while earning college credit through Advanced Placement, College-in-High-School, and dual-enrollment coursework.
Healthcare was selected as the Academy’s inaugural pathway in response to growing workforce demand across Western Pennsylvania and the region’s strong network of healthcare providers. After junior year, students will earn Patient Care Technician certification before spending their senior year in a paid, credit-bearing internship. By graduation, students will have meaningful workplace experience and direct pathways into nursing, surgical technology, radiologic technology, and other healthcare professions.
“The Healthcare Career Academy represents the kind of transformational innovation in education that we need more of today,” said Dr. Gennaro R. Piraino, Jr., Superintendent of Franklin Regional School District. “The senior year becomes the first year of a student’s professional journey.” Through the Academy, students graduate with a diploma, college credit, an industry credential, paid work experience, and a clear pathway into a high-demand career - and this regional collaboration Piraino argues, in his latest Forbes piece, is the only way to build career pathways at scale.
From Classroom Metaverse to AI Career Readiness: An Ed Tech Product Prepares Rural Students for an AI-Driven Workforce
Since being chosen as a member of the inaugural Yass Prize cohort, STEMuli (2021 Finalist) has continued evolving their vision for the future of learning. Originally recognized for building a classroom metaverse that helped schools engage students during COVID, the organization has now developed Founder Tycoon, a simulation game that places AI literacy at the center of career preparation. Students step into the role of startup founders, leading teams of AI agents to research markets, design products, build marketing campaigns, analyze finances, and make strategic decisions. Rather than simply learning how to use AI tools, students identify how to direct AI to solve meaningful problems and accomplish real work.
That vision recently came to life across 13 rural Arkansas high schools through Heartland Forward’s rootEd Arkansas initiative. In communities where only 10% of students reported that a teacher had ever shown them how to use AI, nearly 850 students voluntarily spent an average of three hours each week in Founder Tycoon. Students’ preparedness to use AI in school or future careers rose by 28% and 81% of students said the experience expanded the range of careers they could envision for their future.
Those outcomes reflect a product intentionally shaped by students themselves. Founder Tycoon was co-designed with more than 50 students from seven states, representing rural, urban, traditional, and virtual schools, and was informed by more than 1,500 hours of student feedback. One Dover High School student shared, “Founder Tycoon gave foundation to my idea and now I’m legitimately trying to make my idea into a real-life business.” Others used AI to explore college decisions, learn advanced welding techniques, develop business ideas, and better understand future careers. “We’re not just teaching students how to use AI. We’re teaching them how to lead it,” shared STEMuli Founder, Taylor Shead. “We’re giving students in communities that have historically been left behind the opportunity to build those skills before they even graduate high school. To me, that’s what education should do. It should prepare every student for the world they’re actually entering.”
💐 Congrats To…
Onward Learning (2024 Semifinalist) for officially becoming a state-accredited school working alongside the South Dakota Department of Education.
RCMA (2022 Semifinalist) for their two K-8th campuses officially receiving “A” school grades and their Immokalee Community Academy third grade having received the highest Math score in all of Collier County.
Verdi EcoSchool (2023 Semifinalist) for earning their accreditation through the Middle States Association; for one of their students receiving a prize in the White Rose Essay Contest; for one of their educators being selected as a Bronze Winner in the Civic Star Challenge Essay Contest; and for celebrating their 5th year as a Canopy School and 3rd year as an awarded ECO-School designation by the City of Melbourne!
Have You Pre-ordered Your Copy Yet?
Heroes aren't born - they're summoned. In The Education Avengers, CER’s own Jeanne Allen tells the true stories of twelve people - most of whom are Yass Prize alumni - who decided children are worth the fight, and what happens when ordinary people take on the Hydra of apathy, bureaucracy, and lost hope standing between kids and opportunity. Pre-order now ahead of its August 25th release!
In a short 75 days ….
On October 6th in Philadelphia, the Power of Innovation Summit will convene education entrepreneurs, policy leaders, investors, and innovators who are transforming how learning works in America, and the 2026 $1 million Yass Prize winner will be crowned.
From breakthrough school models to new technologies and bold policy ideas, the summit highlights the people building solutions for students and families. Learn more about the Summit here, and request your Summit event invitation here.