Celebrating Innovation in Education: Highlights from the Rennie Center’s Condition of Education Convening

We are deeply grateful for the thought-leadership of Chad d'Entremont  and the The Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy . This year's inspiring Condition of Education convening brought together practitioners on the front-lines and civic leaders, including Secretary Patrick Tutwiler and Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley, to highlight breakthrough practices transforming schools across the Commonwealth. While there’s much to celebrate, the data is clear—there’s still urgent work to be done to ensure every student thrives.

Rennie released these sobering statistics in their report accompanying the event:

• "According to the EdWeek Research Center, Over 80% of educators reported a decline in students’ motivation and engagement post-pandemic—a trend reflected in student behaviors."

  
  

• "Chronic absenteeism has also surged, rising 13.5 percentage points nationwide from 2019 to 2022. Massachusetts saw an even steeper increase of 14.8 percentage points during the same period"

• "Only 11% of Massachusetts eighth-grade students and 15% of tenth-grade students have a favorable or most favorable view of their school, according to the 2024 Massachusetts Voices on Climate and Learning Survey."

Source: "The Schools are Students Deserve," pg. 2, The Rennie Center, 2025)

Given the data on student motivation and absenteeism, investing in innovative, student-centered approaches is more critical than ever.

Innovation in Action: Rennie Center Highlights WPS & Salem Public Schools

Image credit: The Rennie Center 2025

We were honored to have our innovation partnership with Salem Public Schools featured in this year’s Action Guide, "The Schools Our Students Deserve" (pg. 10-11). This guide presents a framework for school redesign grounded in the four pillars of the Science of Learning, offering a roadmap for creating more effective and equitable learning environments.

Beyond being highlighted in the Action Guide, our colleagues from Salem Public Schools were invited to participate in a community conversation alongside other education innovators. As Dean of Innovation Chelsea Banks shared:

“It feels incredible to not talk as much about obstacles as enablers that were helping push us forward, because we had a shared belief that we could do better. What we were offering our children was simply not good enough. And so there was an appetite and an opportunity within the system to try something new. We met the WPS Institute, and they became an on-the-ground design partner, with financial support through a grant. Especially in traditional public schools, the necessity of that flexibility and financing goes a long way in creating the opportunity for change at a much faster pace.”

Moving Forward: A Shared Commitment to Change

The Rennie Center’s convening was a powerful reminder of what is possible when educators, policymakers, and communities come together with a shared commitment to innovation and student success. Watch the full conversation and download the Action Guide for more insights on how we can continue building the schools our students deserve!

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The WPS Institute creates innovative programs and partnerships to transform learning. We advance models of schooling where learning thrives everywhere, in classrooms and beyond; where students and their families are empowered to shape their own educational journeys; and where entire communities contribute to the development of young people.