NOT A LOST YEAR: K–12 innovation during 2020-21 and how to nurture it post-pandemic

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mia

NOT A LOST YEAR examines K–12 innovation during the 2020-21 period and explains how schools can sustain and nurture it after the pandemic. It argues that schools have long adapted, but COVID-19 revealed limits in existing systems—especially for marginalized learners—requiring continued change toward more equitable, joyful, and rigorous learning environments. The report summarizes findings from the Canopy project dataset, describing a four-step data collection process and the dataset’s scale and survey rounds.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Where Canopy schools are innovating

Emerging insights in school innovation

New adoption: Changing practices over time

Equity focus: Practices designed to support marginalized students

High school innovation: Redesigning the adolescent experience

The motivations behind school innovations

What innovative schools need to succeed

Conclusion

Notes

About the Institute, About the author

NOT A LOST YEAR: K–12 innovation during 2020-21 and how to nurture it post-pandemic BY CHELSEA WAITE JULY 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments 3 Introduction 4 Where Canopy schools are innovating 5 Emerging insights in school innovation 7 New adoption: Changing practices over time 7 Equity focus: Practices designed to support marginalized students 10 High school innovation: Redesigning the adolescent experience 12 The motivations behind school innovations 14 What innovative schools need to succeed 16 Conclusion 18 Notes 19 About the Institute, About the author 21 C HR IST E NS E N INST IT UT E : N OT A LOST Y EA R 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Canopy project is a collective effort involving hundreds of organizations and schools, and stewarded by the Christensen Institute and Transcend (referred to in this document as “Canopy project leads” and “we”) . The following individuals have provided critical advisory oversight and strategic input: Beth Rabbitt and Stephen Pham (The Learning Accelerator), Betheny Gross (formerly CRPE), Caroline Hill (228 Accelerator), Deborah Good (Future Focused Education), Eliot Levine (Aurora Institute), Kimberly Smith (Digital Promise), Lesley Brown Rawlings (Beloved Community), Rebecca Wolfe (KnowledgeWorks), and Temple Lovelace (Duquesne University) . Angie Martinez, Bi Vuong, and Gregor Thomas at Project Evident also provided critical support and data analysis. The Canopy is made possible with support from the Barr Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Leon Lowenstein Foundation, and Overdeck Family Foundation. Lastly, we extend our appreciation to the nominating organizations and school leaders who contributed to building the Canopy dataset, and applaud schools that are innovating around the country for their efforts to bring about more equitable, joyful, and rigorous learning environments. C HR IST E NS E N INST IT UT E : N OT A LOST Y EA R 3 INTRODUCTION Among the lessons to take away 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. In fact, that argument, often used to make an urgent case for school redesign, was never completely true. Schools have adapted, often in quiet ways, as society and culture evolve. But after a year in which all schools upended the status quo to support students’ learning and wellbeing during a pandemic, the most vocal critics of outdated school systems must acknowledge that even the most conventional schools have displayed a previously unrecognized degree of tenacity, commitment, and adaptability. That capacity for change is promising because events over the course of 2020 and 2021 have laid bare the limitations of our existing school systems to support every learner, especially those most marginalized, to fulfill their unique potential. Moving beyond that status quo will require ongoing change—and not just any kind of change, but change in service of more equitable, joyful, and rigorous learning environments. For that, schools will need innovation: a process to solve a problem with a clear goal, but no pre-existing path to reach it. Innovation: A process to solve a problem with a clear goal, but no pre-existing path to reach it. At this critical juncture before a new school year, it’s a perfect time to learn from innovations already underway in school communities, including shiftsin school practice during 2020 and 2021. It’s also a perfect time to examine the direction that schools’ innovation work may take going forward, and what schools need to support that work. The Canopy project offers unique insight into these themes at a time when concrete information about innovative school practice is remarkably scarce. Since 2019, the project has set out to build collective knowledge about innovation in individual schools—the “trees”—as well as the whole“forest” of schools that are innovating nationwide. Here’s how it works (se

FAQs

What is the core purpose of NOT A LOST YEAR?

To analyze K–12 innovation during 2020-21 and identify how schools can nurture innovation after the pandemic.

How does the Canopy project collect and build its dataset?

It uses a four-step process: source nominators, nominate schools, document school models with consistent tags, and add contextual data from NCES merged into Canopy data.

Why does the report emphasize equity-focused innovation?

It argues that existing school systems have limitations in supporting every learner, particularly those most marginalized, and that future innovation should serve more equitable, joyful, and rigorous learning environments.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Mia