The 43-page resource, which aims to help school leaders understand how they can embrace education trends and tools in 2025 to overcome classroom challenges and improve student outcomes, is broken up into three sections: hurdles, accelerators and tech enablers. The accelerators, or trends that can motivate K-12 innovation, include allowing students to take more active roles in their education, boosting staff skills and independence, and looking beyond traditional testing to assess student mastery, according to the experts surveyed.
The tech enablers, which the document defines as the top tools schools can use to “grease the wheels” of innovation and improvement, are generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), analytics and adaptive technologies, and untethered broadband and connectivity.
The report also outlines four overarching themes, or “key bridges,” to guide the transformation of K-12 education. These are ethical innovation, personalization, the future of work, and critical media literacy.
“The 2025 Driving K-12 Innovation report urges education leaders to take a holistic approach to the challenges schools face, crafting solutions uniquely tailored with their needs,” CoSN CEO Keith Krueger said in a public statement. “The report isn’t a blueprint for one-size-fits-all answers — it’s a catalyst for meaningful dialogue. We hope it inspires leaders to reflect, collaborate and take bold steps to create learning environments where every student and educator can thrive.”
HURDLES
The document spells out the most obvious answer to the workforce concerns: offer better pay and more career growth opportunities. It adds that AI may help prevent burnout by assisting staff members with routine tasks.
To modernize teaching and learning, the report advises the adoption of flexible, evidence-based ed-tech tools, along with “pedagogical shifts that encourage deeper learning and engagement.”
For digital equity, it advises school leaders to focus not only on an Internet connection and device for every student, but also the accessibility of those devices, equitable learning experiences in each classroom, and digital content that is culturally representative.
ACCELERATORS
Among the broader education trends that may speed innovation this year, boosting learner agency was most important, according to 35 percent of CoSN's advisory board, followed closely by building staff skills at 33 percent and changing student assessments at 32 percent. The report defines learner agency as student-centered learning that promotes a more active student role, with an emphasis on critical thinking, problem solving and hands-on experiences.
To foster this trait, the report says, teachers must be the “guide on the side” rather than the “sage on the stage,” quoting international ed-tech consultant and CoSN advisory board member David Deeds.
Similarly, schools must support training and independence for teachers, the document states. It recommends that all K-12 professionals have access to the kind of ongoing professional development that will help them embrace and advance innovation, and that teachers have more freedom to explore new practices.
These changing approaches to teaching and learning are tied to the third accelerator, which points to the need for new ways to assess student learning, outside of standardized tests. The report suggests school leaders should consider allowing students to demonstrate proficiency in ways that may better translate to real-world success, such as portfolios, passion projects and presentations.
ENABLERS
For “greasing the wheels” of innovation and improvement in the K-12 sector, generative AI is the most important technology in 2025, according to 86 percent of CoSN's advisory board. That was followed by analytics and adaptive technologies at 38 percent and untethered broadband and connectivity at 29 percent.
On the GenAI front, the report pushes the need for student and teacher training and encourages an attitude of cautious but proactive exploration. It also states that AI has a role to play in analytics and adaptive technologies, which can help teachers tailor educational materials to meet individual student needs and arm them with real-time student performance data so they can adjust instruction as needed.
For untethered broadband and connectivity, the document stresses the need for broadband infrastructure and calls for more portable devices and Wi-Fi services for students who may not have them at home.
