Fireside Chat: Driving High School Success & Postsecondary Readiness: Learning with Award for Impact Recipients

Join us to learn how the 2026 Carnegie Award for Impact recipients -- CORE Districts, Hemet Unified School District, and Liberty Public Schools -- are transforming how students experience high school and prepare for college and careers. By taking intentional steps to make sure that improvements take root in their systems, these networks and districts are advancing students’ success in their pivotal 9th grade year, engaging students in the real world learning experiences in high school that prepare them for their future paths, and improving students’ postsecondary readiness. Hear directly from representatives of these three organizations as they reflect on what has enabled and accelerated their progress, the practices and tools that have become central to achieving results, and how they are building and sustaining those practices in their systems.. Moderated by Barbara Shreve, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and Dr. Jeremy Tucker, Superintendent of Liberty Public Schools CORE Districts’ Breakthrough Success Community (BTSC). As collaborators in the CORE Districts’ BTSC, Fresno Unified, Garden Grove Unified, Long Beach Unified, and Oakland Unified school districts have significantly improved the number of 9th grade students, especially Black, Latinx and other students who are historically least-well served, who are on track to graduating with access to the widest array of postsecondary opportunities. Leveraging disciplined improvement cycles and structured opportunities to share learning across sites and systems, CORE Districts and these district systems have increased the percentage of students on track by 24.4% since 2020-21, interrupted inequitable patterns of success and failure, and strengthened the 9th grade experience.Hemet Unified School District. Hemet Unified School District has increased multiple measures of postsecondary readiness for learners across their system since 2022. The district applied continuous improvement methods to improve CTE pathway completion (up 15.3%) and California university admission requirement completion (up 6.9% since 2018), increase students meeting the California College and Career Indicator (up 15.0%), increase the graduation rate and decrease the dropout rate. As it improves outcomes, Hemet Unified is building a districtwide improvement infrastructure and strengthening collective ownership so that every student, especially those furthest from opportunity, graduates ready for college, career, and life.Liberty Public Schools. In 2025, 100% of Liberty Public Schools graduates participated in real world learning opportunities connected to the Liberty Graduate Profile, an increase from 42% of graduates participating in 2021. Through these experiences, students generate evidence of industry valued and recognized skills and readiness for postsecondary education or the workplace. The district’s focused cycles of testing and intentional scaling of effective practices have created a district-wide ecosystem that ensures that every student graduates with solid academic preparation as well as experiences that demonstrate readiness for the future.