This month, AASA, the School Superintendents Association released its latest list of “Lighthouse” systems – school districts that serve as beacons of what’s possible in public education. This prestigious designation, awarded to just a handful of the nation’s 14,000 school districts, celebrates systems that transform learning, improve student outcomes, and demonstrate a commitment to continual innovation.
Of the six new Lighthouse districts named this month, half are located in the Pittsburgh region: the Burrell School District, the Butler Area School District, and the South Allegheny School District. (In addition, AASA designated the Cornell School District a “system to watch” – that is, a district making notable strides toward Lighthouse status.)
The new “Lighthouse” designations are only the latest for the region.
In fact, of the 34 Lighthouse districts named to date, 12 are right here in the Pittsburgh area, making Western Pennsylvania home to the largest cluster of nationally-celebrated school districts in the country.
The cluster is no coincidence. Since 2021, area school districts have been working together as part of a one-of-a-kind coalition designed to turn the region itself into a “Lighthouse” – a place that the nation, and even the world, can look to as a model for what public education can do for today’s students. Dubbed the Western Pennsylvania Learning 2025 Alliance, the coalition includes Pittsburgh Public Schools, the Fox Chapel Area School District, and 40 others, all of whom receive support from AASA’s national network of experts, coaching from lauded superintendents, and grants from The Grable Foundation, which allow each district to launch experimental initiatives that benefit learners at no cost to taxpayers.
Becoming a Lighthouse district is no easy task.
Districts apply for Lighthouse designation through a rigorous application when they feel they serve as models of positive change in one or more of AASA’s focus areas. These areas include creating future-ready learners (Burrell, South Allegheny), aligning school to community needs (Butler Area), early learning, technology-enhanced learning, and more. All of the focus areas are identified here, and all of Western Pennsylvania’s Lighthouse designations here.
This mix of networking, collaboration, and funding has led to a dazzling array of recognitions – and, more importantly, to new and expanded opportunities for Pittsburgh-area learners. Districts are taking risks that would have once seemed radical or even impossible: turning traditional classrooms into futuristic flight simulators, eliminating grade levels, and offering dual-credit classes in which students can earn college degrees before they’ve even finished high school.
What’s so remarkable about our Lighthouse districts – both the Lighthouse districts themselves and the fact that Western Pennsylvania includes so many of them – is that they’re proving that a better public education system is possible. At a time when schools throughout the U.S are grappling with all sorts of things at once: sky-high absenteeism, a youth mental health crisis, student (and family) disengagement, and the pervasive sense that school-as-we’ve-known-it is no longer sufficient for preparing today’s learners for tomorrow’s world.
Thanks to the collective efforts of the Western Pennsylvania Learning 2025 Alliance, the region is, indeed, a “Lighthouse,” with at least four national delegations set to visit Pittsburgh in spring 2025 alone.
Something special is happening here, and we invite you to interview the people – the connective tissue - from AASA, from The Grable Foundation, and/or from local school districts – to understand the region’s momentum and what they can offer the rest of the nation’s educators by inviting them to the conversation.
If it’s helpful, take a look at this video. It's hard to imagine a more emotionally compelling look at what’s happening here and how school leaders are empowering one another to become beacons of hope.
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