Tending Tomorrow’s Soil: Investing in Learning Ecosystems
“Tending soil.”
That’s how Fred Rogers described Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, his beloved television program that aired from 1968 to 2001. Grounded in principles gleaned from top learning scientists, the Neighborhood offered a model for how “learning ecosystems” can work in tandem to tend the soil of learning.
Today, a growing body of evidence suggests that Rogers’ model was not only effective, but that real-life learning ecosystems – networks that include classrooms, living rooms, libraries, museums, and more – may be the most promising approach for preparing learners for tomorrow. As such, cities and regions around the world are constructing thoughtfully designed ecosystems that leverage and connect their communities’ assets, responding to the aptitudes, needs, and dreams of the learners they serve.
Efforts to study and scale these ecosystems at local, state, and federal levels would position the nation’s students as globally competitive, future-ready learners.
The Challenge
For decades, America’s primary tool for “tending soil” has been its public schools, which are (and will continue to be) the country’s best hope for fulfilling its promise of opportunity. At the same time, the nation’s industrial-era soil has shifted. From the way our communities function to the way our economy works, dramatic social and technological upheavals have remade modern society. This incongruity – between the world as it is and the world that schools were designed for – has blunted the effectiveness of education reforms; heaped systemic, society-wide problems on individual teachers; and shortchanged the students who need the most support.
“Public education in the United States is at a crossroads,” notes a report published by the Alliance for Learning Innovation, Education Reimagined, and Transcend: “to ensure future generations’ success in a globally competitive economy, it must move beyond a one-size-fits-all model towards a new paradigm that prioritizes innovation that holds promise to meet the needs, interests, and aspirations of each and every learner.”
What’s needed is the more holistic paradigm epitomized by Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: a collaborative ecosystem that sparks engaged, motivated learners by providing the tools, resources, and relationships that every young person deserves.
The Opportunity
With components both public and private, virtual and natural, “learning ecosystems” found in communities around the world reflect today’s connected, interdependent society. These ecosystems are not replacements for schools – rather, they embrace and support all that schools can be, while also tending to the vital links between the many places where kids and families learn: parks, libraries, museums, afterschool programs, businesses, and beyond. The best of these ecosystems function as real-life versions of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: places where learning happens everywhere, both in and out of school. Where every learner can turn to people and programs that help them become, as Rogers used to say, “the best of whoever you are.”
Nearly every community contains the components of effective learning ecosystems. The partnerships forged within them can – when properly tended – spark and spread high-impact innovations; support collaboration among formal and informal educators; provide opportunities for young people to solve real-world problems; and create pathways to success in a fast-changing modern economy. By studying and investing in the mechanisms that connect these ecosystems, policymakers can build “neighborhoods” of learning that prepare students for citizenship, work, and life.
Plan of Action
Learning ecosystems can be cultivated at every level. Whether local, state, or federal, interested policymakers should:
Establish a commission on learning ecosystems. Tasked with studying learning ecosystems in the U.S. and abroad, the commission would identify best practices and recommend policy that 1) strengthens an area’s existing learning ecosystems and/or 2) nurtures new connections. Launched at the federal, state, or local level and led by someone with a track record for getting things done, the commission should include representatives from various sectors, including early childhood educators, K-12 teachers and administrators, librarians, researchers, CEOs and business leaders, artists, makers, and leaders from philanthropic and community-based organizations. The commission will help identify existing activities, research, and funding for learning ecosystems and will foster coordination and collaboration to maximize the effectiveness of the ecosystem’s resources.
A 2024 report by Knowledge to Power Catalysts notes that these cross-sector commissions are increasingly common at various levels of government, from county councils to city halls. As policymakers establish interagency working groups, departments of children and youth, and networks of human services providers, “such offices at the county or municipal level often play a role in cross-sector collaboratives that engage the nonprofit, faith, philanthropic, and business communities as well.”
Pittsburgh’s Remake Learning ecosystem, for example, is steered by the Remake Learning Council, a blue-ribbon commission of Southwestern Pennsylvania leaders from education, government, business, and the civic sector committed to “working together to support teaching, mentoring, and design – across formal and informal educational settings – that spark creativity in kids, activating them to acquire knowledge and skills necessary for navigating lifelong learning, the workforce, and citizenship.”
Establish a competitive grant program to support pilot projects. These grants could seed new ecosystems and/or support innovation among proven ecosystems. (Several promising ecosystems are operating throughout the country already; however, many are excluded from funding opportunities by narrowly focused RFPs.) This grant program can be administered by the commission to catalyze and strengthen learning ecosystems at the federal, state, or local levels. Such a program could be modeled after:
- The National Science Foundation’s efforts to nurture “an effective and inclusive STEM education ecosystem that prepares PreK-12 students for STEM careers, fosters entrepreneurship, and provides all people, particularly those from under-served and underrepresented populations, with access to excellent STEM education throughout their lifetimes.”
- The Pennsylvania Department of Education’s PAsmart program, a $30 million initiative designed to enhance the state’s education and workforce development efforts. PAsmart’s “Advancing Grants” of up to $500,000 each support cross-sector ecosystems that include educators from different districts and agencies. The South Fayette Township School District near Pittsburgh received an Advancing Grant to expand computer science not only for its own learners, but also for those in seven neighboring districts across four counties. Representing a microcosm of Pennsylvania, educators from these districts work side-by-side to identify crucial skills and design new ways to teach them, enhancing their collective impact.
- Remake Learning’s Moonshot grants, which award funds that encourage people to take risks, try new things, and explore the limits of what’s possible. These grants have been leveraged to strengthen ecosystem connections in cities and regions around the world.
Host a summit on learning ecosystems. Leveraging the gravitas of a government and/or civic institution such as the White House, a governor’s mansion, or a city hall, bring members of the commission together with learning ecosystem leaders and practitioners, along with cross-sector community leaders. A summit will underscore promising practices, share lessons learned, and highlight monetary and in-kind commitments to support ecosystems. The summit could leverage for learning ecosystems the philanthropic commitments model developed and used by previous presidential administrations to secure private and philanthropic support. Visit remakelearning.org/forge to see an example of one summit’s schedule, activities, and grantmaking opportunities.
Establish an ongoing learning ecosystem grant program for scaling and implementing lessons learned. This grant program could be administered at the federal, state, or local level – by a city government, for example, or by partnerships like the Appalachian Regional Commission. As new learning ecosystems form and existing ones evolve, policymakers should continue to provide grants that support learning ecosystem partnerships between communities that allow innovations in one city or region to take root in another.
Invest in research, publications, convenings, outreach, and engagement efforts that highlight local ecosystems and make their work more visible, especially for families. The ongoing grant program can include funding for opportunities that elevate the benefits of learning ecosystems. Events such as Remake Learning Days – an annual festival billed as “the world’s largest open house for teaching and learning” and drawing an estimated 300,000 attendees worldwide – build demand for learning ecosystems among parents, caregivers, and community leaders, ensuring grassroots buy-in and lasting change.
This memo was developed in partnership with the Alliance for Learning Innovation, a coalition dedicated to advocating for building a better research and development infrastructure in education for the benefit of all students.
This action-ready policy memo is part of Day One 2025 — our effort to bring forward bold policy ideas, grounded in science and evidence, that can tackle the country’s biggest challenges and bring us closer to the prosperous, equitable and safe future that we all hope for whoever takes office in 2025 and beyond.
PLEASE NOTE (February 2025): Since publication several government websites have been taken offline. We apologize for any broken links to once accessible public data.
Within a learning ecosystem, students aren’t limited to classrooms, schools, or even their own districts – nor do they have to travel far to find opportunities that light them up. By blurring the lines between “in school” and “out of school,” ecosystems make learning more engaging, more relevant, and even more joyful. Pittsburgh’s Remake Learning ecosystem, for example, connects robotics professionals with classroom teachers to teach coding and STEM. Librarians partner with teaching artists to offer weeklong deep dives into topics attractive to young people. A school district launches a program – say, a drone academy for girls – and opens it up to learners from neighboring districts.
As ecosystems expand to include more members, the partnerships formed within them spark exciting, ever-evolving opportunities for learners.
Within an ecosystem, learning isn’t just for young people. An ecosystem’s out-of-school components – businesses, universities, makerspaces, and more – bring real-world problems directly to learners, leading to tangible change in communities and a more talented, competitive future workforce. In greater Washington, D.C., for example, teachers partner with cultural institutions to develop curricula based on students’ suggestions for improving the city. In Kansas City, high schoolers partner with entrepreneurs and health care professionals to develop solutions for everything from salmonella poisoning to ectopic pregnancy. And in Pittsburgh, public school students are studying cybersecurity, training for aviation careers, conducting cutting-edge cancer research, and more.
Learning ecosystems also support educators. In Pittsburgh, educators involved in Remake Learning note that “they feel celebrated and validated in their work,” writes researcher Erin Gatz. Moreover, the ecosystem’s “shared learning and supportive environment were shown to help educators define or reinforce their professional identity.”
Learning ecosystems can aid local economies, too. In eastern Kentucky, an ecosystem of school districts, universities, and economic development organizations empowers students to reimagine former coal land for entrepreneurial purposes. And in West Virginia, an ecosystem of student-run companies has helped the state recover from natural disasters.
Since 2007, Pittsburgh’s Remake Learning has emerged as the most talked-about learning ecosystem in the world. Studied by scholars, recognized by heads of state, and expanding to include more then 700 schools, libraries, museums, and other sites of learning, Remake Learning has – through two decades of stewardship – inspired more than 40 additional learning ecosystems. Meanwhile, the network’s Moonshot Grants are seeding new ecosystems across the nation and around the world.
Global demand for learning ecosystems is growing. A 2020 report released by HundrED, a Finland-based nonprofit, profiles 16 of the most promising examples operating in the United States. Likewise, the World Innovation Summit for Education explores nine learning ecosystems operating worldwide: “Across the globe, there is a growing consensus that education demands radical transformation if we want all citizens to become future-ready in the face of a more digitally enabled, uncertain, and fast-changing world,” the summit notes. “Education has the potential to be the greatest enabler of preparing everyone, young and old, for the future, yet supporting learning too often remains an issue for schools alone.”
Learning ecosystems support collaboration and community among public schools, connecting classrooms, schools, and educators across diverse districts. Within Remake Learning, for example, a cohort of 42 school districts works together – and in partnership with afterschool programs, health care providers, universities, and others – to make Western Pennsylvania a model for the future of learning.
The cohort’s collaborative approach has led to a dazzling array of awards and opportunities for students: A traditional classroom becomes a futuristic flight simulator. A school district opens its doors to therapy dogs and farm animals. Students in dual-credit classes earn college degrees before they’ve even finished high school. Thanks in part to the ecosystem’s efforts, Western Pennsylvania is now recognized as home to the largest cluster of nationally celebrated school districts in the country.
As demand for learning ecosystems continues to gather momentum, several organizations have released playbooks and white papers designed to guide policymakers, practitioners, and other interested parties. Helpful resources include:
- Too Essential to Fail: Why Our Big Bet on Public Education Needs a Bold National Response (Knowledge to Power Catalysts, 2024)
- Ecosystems for the Future of Learning (Education Reimagined and The History Co:Lab, 2023)
- Playbook – Designing Learning Ecosystems (World Innovation Summit for Education, 2022)
In addition, Remake Learning has released three publications that draw on more than twenty years of “tending soil.” The publications share methods and mindsets for navigating some of the most critical questions that face ecosystems’ stewards:
By investing in the mechanisms that connect learning ecosystems, policymakers can build “neighborhoods” of learning that prepare students for citizenship, work, and life.
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