The annual ASU-GSV Summit offers endless conversations about the role of AI in schools and the latest ed tech offerings across its more than 7,000 attendees – but policy conversations are always present too to help ground innovation in the day-to-day experience of students.
I had the chance to moderate one of those sessions last month, focused on Texas policy and place-based partnerships, with Mike Miles, the superintendent of the Houston Independent School District; Todd Williams, the founder and CEO of the Commit Partnership; and Jeff Edmundson, the executive director for community impact at the Ballmer Group.
We discussed Texas’ compelling combination of incentive-based policies, strong intermediary organizations, focused district leadership, and philanthropic investment that is starting to drive real and swift improvement in student learning.
The Texas public system educates about 10% of America’s young people. Its K-12 system is the primary pipeline for the world’s eighth-largest economy. But many young Texans are struggling in poverty – 60% of Texas public education students are considered economically disadvantaged. The state economy and workforce are changing in real time as AI and geopolitical change cause churn.
One path to ensuring that more young people are prepared for their futures is place-based partnerships, a key interest of the Ballmer Group, which is investing $1 billion in them around the country. This model is spreading across Texas, inspired by improvement in student outcomes in Houston and Dallas.
In 2023, 56 of Houston ISD’s campuses earned an F in the Texas A-F accountability system because so many children were falling behind academically. In 2025, under the leadership of Superintendent Mike Miles, that number is zero.
Two years ago, 35,000 students walked into an F-rated Houston ISD campus. This school year, no child did. Miles was installed as the district leader thanks to a state policy that requires the Texas Education Agency to assume control of a district with campuses with very low student learning outcomes for several years running.
In Dallas County, the Commit Partnership, a one-of-a-kind intermediary, is making significant progress on their big goal – that at least half of young adults in the county will earn a living wage. That number was 22%, and it is now up to 33%. This is thanks to Commit’s focus on improving reading and math scores along with building capacity of educators and supporting incentive-based policies in both K-12 and higher education.
In both cities, place-based partnerships are supporting the critical improvements for young people in the school districts. Those partnerships are anchored by a strong backbone organization that helps convene stakeholders, clear goals and vision, effective and transparent use of data to drive strategy, and a focus on changing or improving programs to drive results.
These partnerships marry state accountability policy with the fortitude, vision, and capacity to improve schools. As a result, more young people are prepared for their next steps in an increasingly volatile economy.
In Houston ISD, that means repurposing instructional time to ensure kids can read and do math. It also means immersing students in future-focused learning to discover the art of thinking, which builds critical reasoning and decision-making, along with opportunities to travel out of the state and country to broaden students’ understanding of the world.
In Dallas, that means focusing on a continuum of indicators including kinder readiness, third-grade reading, high school graduation, college readiness, post-secondary completion and more. Commit takes advantage of policy, incentives, and expertise to bolster the capacity in the system that drives improvement for young people.
Texas accountability policy means everyone can see how well students are learning and progressing. That clarity invites in the broad range of stakeholders required to create something better for Texas’ kids – educators, intermediary organizations, policymakers and more – who are creating place-based partnerships for the long haul.
As Edmundson shared on stage, this strategy is a win for strategic philanthropists. Investing in these partnerships and strong backbone organizations provides leverage to maximize public dollars, creates meaningful opportunities to scale, and helps create a national network of those who are building real change for young people. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.
