How Three Districts Built a Collaborative Model for Change

Physical and mental health. Economic status. ZIP code.

These are just a few of the factors that impact student learning every day. For district leaders, supporting students amid these realities often means finding ways to do more with limited resources. And while those challenges can feel overwhelming, districts don’t have to face them alone. Collaboration can be a powerful lever for change.

When district leaders come together around shared challenges, they create change grounded in both research and lived experience. Collaboration gives them a chance to see what’s working elsewhere and to share discoveries from their own communities.

Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools provides districts with such opportunities to connect with peers, explore new ideas and turn research into practice.

Supporting Multilingual Learners with AI

In Pennsylvania’s Allentown School District, roughly 20 percent of students identify as English learners. That shift requires new programs, new processes and new ways of teaching. Melissa Smith, the district’s executive director of learning and teaching, has seen these challenges firsthand.

Teaching English language learners (ELLs) to read is complex. English phonics, irregular sounds, limited vocabulary and unfamiliar grammar all present hurdles. Students must also build background knowledge often assumed of native speakers. Teachers play a critical role in connecting the curriculum to each student’s strengths and needs, but they rarely have enough time for individualized support.

To help bridge those gaps, Smith joined the leadership cohort for Digital Promise’s U-GAIN Reading Center, a national institute focused on artificial intelligence and its potential to support literacy for multilingual learners.

“With the science of reading, the primary focus has been on making sure that we are understanding and using the research to support our reading instruction,” Smith said. “So when we look at it from an English learner lens, it’s not only ‘do we have the structured literacy research,’ but we’re also looking for best practice in English learner instruction.”

By collaborating with other leaders, Smith learned how AI could help address dialect differences that influence literacy development. “Dialect can play a critical role if it’s not the dialect that a student is used to,” she explained.

That insight now shapes how Allentown evaluates resources and programming. Educators are implementing AI-supported strategies that target student-specific needs, helping teachers reach every learner more effectively.

“Leaders need opportunities to continue to learn and grow in a manner that helps them understand the latest research as well as its relevance to their work,” added Smith.

Helping Students Build Computational Thinking Skills

As digital technologies become more embedded in daily life, computational thinking (CT), a problem-solving approach that uses computer science concepts and skills, is increasingly essential. Yet the continuous evolution of CT can make it difficult to integrate across subjects, often limiting it to technology classes.

Facing this challenge, Quakertown Community School District Superintendent Matthew Friedman partnered with Digital Promise to develop and implement a comprehensive K-5 computational thinking pathway. The district used Digital Promise’s computational thinking toolkit to align content with state standards, build teacher capacity through summer institutes and gather data to refine implementation and embed CT across the curriculum.

Now entering its second year, the initiative is expanding to grade six, with middle school programming on the horizon.

“The opportunities to collaborate are not just a one-size-fits-all approach,” Friedman said. “We’re listening and learning from other districts to build something to meet our specific needs.”

By connecting with peer districts, Quakertown has adopted research-informed, tech-enabled strategies that can scale within its context, while shaping a model that others can adapt.

Seeing the Whole Picture to Address Chronic Absenteeism

In California’s Lynwood Unified School District, chronic absenteeism spiked to 40 percent during the pandemic. District efforts helped, but more than 20 percent of students still missed over 10 days of school each year. Recent challenges — wildfire ash, flooding, refinery smoke and immigration-related fears — have made recovery even harder.

“We want to keep our students and families hopeful,” said Dr. Maribel Martinez, assistant superintendent of Lynwood Unified School District.

In 2024, Lynwood Unified joined a national cohort of districts to investigate the underlying causes of chronic absenteeism and develop adaptive strategies to meet the unique needs of students and families.

A conversation with peers from colder climates revealed new insights on how environmental factors directly impact attendance within their district.

Inspired by that exchange, Lynwood began working with its city council on drainage improvements and exploring temporary bus routes during storms.

Even when districts pursue similar goals, connecting with peers facing comparable challenges brings fresh insights, reinforces the value of shared efforts and builds momentum toward meaningful, lasting change.

Collaborating to Effect Change

“Digital Promise is a national thought leader that has so much expertise…and they’re not only a collaborator to build things out, but also a connector that connects people, schools and districts to share different ideas,” said Friedman.

Districts across the country are navigating shifting demographics, evolving technology needs, staffing shortages and dwindling funds. Yet district leaders remain united under a common goal: creating a school culture that helps students succeed in school and beyond graduation.

The complexity of health, economic status and location does not stop at district borders. By working together, district leaders are creating new solutions that help all students thrive.

Stay up to date on future collaborative learning opportunities with Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools.