Last week, we joined the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools for their latest convening right here in our backyard. The contrast was not lost on us as we were sitting just a few miles from the glass towers where engineers are busy building the software that is changing the way we work and learn.
But if you walked into that room of superintendents and district teams, you wouldn’t have heard much talk about the latest disruptive software. There was no rush to find the next shiny device. Instead, there was a much deeper, more urgent conversation happening. These leaders were wrestling with the concept of what is truly irreplaceable in a moment when technology can do more and more. They weren’t there to talk about tools.
Photo Credit: Digital Promise
Since 2011, this national network of 165 districts has used these biannual convenings as a shared foundation to connect and elevate. What stood out this time was a grounded commitment to the human elements of the system. These leaders understand that innovation is built through disciplined work under uncertain conditions.
Kent: Scaling Equity Through Purpose
In the Kent Valley, the commitment to student potential is rooted in a unique industrial geography. Under the district leadership of Superintendent Israel Vela and Associate Superintendent Rebekah Kim, the district has moved beyond passive data points. They now use a human-centered design process.
Their methodology in leveraging student voice is anchored in an Equity Transformation Cycle, driven by Street Data. This process treats intentional two-way listening as a primary data set to make meaningful change. It centers the perspectives of students at the margins to identify where the system itself can improve student learning experiences and increase their sense of belonging. By analyzing how learners have historically been left behind, Kim and her team are seeking to build ways to redesign access points across the system.
This is not just a data exercise. It is a design decision. Kent treats equity as a constraint that shapes every pathway, not an outcome to measure after the fact.
In a region where Boeing is supported by over 300 vendors, Kent has built a direct bridge between the classroom and the hangar. Holly Miles of Boeing was direct about what that industry is looking for: “evidence of projects, because projects build skills and give students a story.” Not credentials. Stories.
By partnering with organizations like Skills Inc., a manufacturer that models workforce accessibility, Kent supports students with diverse needs and helps them transition into direct-hire roles and dual-credit programs. From third-graders at the Museum of Flight to high schoolers in advanced manufacturing labs, the district is aligning learning with opportunity. This is system-level belonging, where pathways are built around students instead of asking them to fit into predefined routes.
Issaquah: The Courage to Co-Design
Photo Credit: Digital Promise
In Issaquah, the district is demonstrating how to navigate system transformation through disciplined R&D. Superintendent Heather Tow-Yick and Julia Bamba, Principal of Innovation, described an approach that matches the scale of the test to the complexity of the challenge by using classrooms, cohorts, or microschools as different levels of design. They are not just running safe pilots. They are interrogating the infrastructure itself to create the space for authentic co-design and for the full implementation and sustainability of new models.
This work moves from small-scale, interdisciplinary cohorts in middle schools to fully reimagined environments such as Gibson Ek High School. Principal Tonja Reischl noted that the focus is on growth over time. This philosophy applies as much to the system as it does to the student. What Gibson Ek proves is that reimagined learning doesn’t require a private budget or a different zip code. It requires a different set of decisions, about time, relationships, and what counts as evidence of growth. By using the microschool as a protected policy space, Issaquah can test how competency-based progressions function when traditional constraints, such as seat time, are removed.
In Issaquah, co-design has become a form of governance. Insights from these learner-centered environments will now shape the construction of a new open-enrollment high school. This aligns the physical space with the community’s shared vision and Portrait of a Graduate. This is what it looks like to move from isolated innovation to system coherence. They are learning before they scale, working to embed a sense of belonging into the district’s design, and walking the walk from R&D to transformation.
What AI Cannot Replace
The convening closed with a perspective from Justin Spelhaug of Microsoft Elevate. His framing of the AI economy underscored the urgency of our observations. We are moving from the Information Age to a probabilistic era. The previous age was defined by deterministic systems with a clear right answer. In this new era, AI handles the routine expertise. If AI can handle what is known, schools must focus on what is not.
AI can surface research, but it cannot wade into Issaquah Creek to restore a salmon habitat. It can analyze patterns, but it cannot create the conditions for a student to feel seen, known, and valued. Digital Promise CEO Jean-Claude Brizard recently noted that we are entering an era where human intelligence is the differentiator. Students must be active partners in shaping how technology works, rather than passive consumers.
The human skills districts are prioritizing include belonging, real-world application, and relational trust, which are not soft outcomes. As AI takes on routine tasks, the value of education shifts toward curiosity, judgment, and connection. These are not soft skills. They are the work.
The most courageous leadership we saw was not a finished product. It was a willingness to remain in uncertainty as leaders redesigned schedules, budgets, and systems. This is where Collaborative Innovation becomes essential. Through the Center for Learner Pathway Innovations, led by Kimberly Smith and Viki M. Young, Ph.D., districts are using Digital Promise’s proven community-centered co-design process to build cross-sector pathways that position belonging as a design principle within the system. Yet most systems are still optimized for delivering knowledge, not designing for conditions that shape learners’ access, participation, and ability to thrive.
Photo Credit: Digital Promise
Moving from Portrait to Practice
Lasting systems take shape when leaders redesign the conditions that allow a vision to take root. Kent and Issaquah demonstrate that the difficult days are the condition for building systems that last. The challenge is not vision. Most districts already have a Portrait of a Graduate. The challenge is whether their systems are designed to deliver it.
To move your own district toward that horizon, consider these five moves:
- Identify the Infrastructure Barrier: What specific system constraint is preventing your vision from becoming a reality? Look at the bell schedule, a grading policy, or a transcript legacy.
- Activate Uncommon Alliances: Who else in your learners’ education ecosystem can you co-create innovative solutions with? Dissolve roadblocks to today’s pathways by working across K-12, postsecondary, industry, and community to keep up with learner needs and an evolving workforce.
- Choose your R&D Container: Match the scale of your test to the complexity of the problem. Use a classroom for grading shifts, a cohort for interdisciplinary work, or a microschool for total system redesign.
- Document the Friction: Do not just study success. Study what breaks. Those pressure points reveal where the old system is fighting the new vision.
- Audit for Agency: Are students primarily completing deterministic tasks with known answers? Seek ways to engage in the probabilistic work that requires judgment and iteration.
- Redesign for Human Connection: Determine how you can use AI to handle routine tasks, freeing up human energy for mentorship and real-world application.
- Learn from Peers: The type of innovative thinking that enables nimble, strategic changes happens best in a community. Tap into professional learning networks to identify and pressure-test ideas with fellow leaders and districts.
In the age of AI, the goal is not to keep up. It is to be clear about what is irreplaceable and to build systems that protect and expand it over time. Are you an education leader who is looking to connect and learn alongside forward-thinking peers from across the country? Learn more about and apply to the League of Innovative Schools.
