Michael HornCo-founder and Chairman, Christensen Institute

Unpacking Lessons Learned from Summit Learning Part 1

14 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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1:03

In this brief dialogue, the speakers reflect on the Summit Learning initiative’s reach and lasting influence. Over four years, roughly 400 schools across about 40 U.S. states dramatically redesigned their educational models, with a majority implementing the changes effectively and maintaining them even after the original platform support ended. The speakers describe this persistence as a sign of transformational impact, noting that many practices introduced by Summit have become standard expectations in education today. The conversation underscores the initiative’s role in seeding new ways of thinking and operating within schools, framing it as an ongoing journey of iteration and improvement.

2, how many times have we seen in 4 years schools across the country in 40 states literally commit to and redesign their model in dramatic ways and like be all in on that? And of those 400 schools, a vast majority did that, did it well, and stuck with it.
So not everyone. That's not— this is not a universality.
No, no. But like—
But a lot of
them. To me, that's like pretty tremendous. And to this day, Many of them are literally still trying to, even in the absence of the platform.
Really? They're still committed?
Yes. Yeah.
That's, that's not nothing.
No, it was transformational for them in terms of how they think and move their schools forward. And then I look back and think, you know, so many of the things that I think people are starting to take for granted today were new then. And so, what did we sort of seed and enable? And isn't this a journey for all of us as we continue to improve and iterate? And so, I think we just made a lot of that like kind of standard. If you will, through that program.