From Pockets of Excellence to Systemic Change: Why Collaboration Is the Future of Inclusive Education
Aurora Dreger
Project Director, Educating All Learners Alliance
InnovateEDU
Topics
Together, educators are doing the reimagining and reinvention work necessary to make true educational equity possible. Student-centered learning advances equity when it values social and emotional growth alongside academic achievement, takes a cultural lens on strengths and competencies, and equips students with the power and skills to address injustice in their schools and communities.
Collaboration is key to make the systemic changes needed in K-12 education for students with disabilities and learning differences.
For most of my career in education, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat itself.
In classrooms, schools, and districts across the country, there are incredible educators doing extraordinary work for students with disabilities and learning differences.
But too often, those efforts stay exactly where they started: isolated pockets of excellence.
One school figures something out. One teacher develops a brilliant strategy. One district creates a promising program. And yet the broader system never fully learns from it.
That gap is why the Educating All Learners Alliance (EALA) exists.
From a Pandemic Response to a National Network
EALA began during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As schools rapidly shifted to remote learning, many organizations realized something troubling: students with disabilities and learning differences were being left out of the conversation about how to adapt education.
What started as a 10-person conference call quickly grew into something much larger. Today, EALA includes:
Over 170 partner organizations
A free, open-access resource library
A professional learning and collaboration network
Cross-sector initiatives designed to improve outcomes for diverse learners
We often refer to it as a “network of networks.” And that’s intentional. Educational challenges are too complex for any one organization, or even a single sector, to solve alone.
The Power of the “EALA-verse”
At EALA, we bring together voices from across the education ecosystem:
Teachers and school leaders
Parent advocates
Disability advocates
Researchers and policy leaders
EdTech product designers and industry
Nonprofit organizations
Though I sometimes jokingly call it the “EALA-verse,” the core of our work is serious.
Real change happens when the right people are in the same room.
Practitioners inform policy. Researchers learn from real classroom practice. Technology developers hear directly from educators and students. That cross-pollination is where innovation starts to scale.
Turning Ideas into Action
One of the initiatives to collaborate for systemic change that I’m most excited about is our Community of Action model.
Originally, we thought of it as a community of practice. But we quickly realized something important: people don’t just want to talk about solutions. They want to build them.
So we created something close to a 36-hour solution lab and accelerator. Participants come together to:
Identify a shared challenge
Form interdisciplinary teams
Design a solution
Pitch their idea to the group
We sometimes describe it as a “dolphin tank” instead of Shark Tank, a collaborative, supportive, and focused space to improve outcomes for students.
At the end of the process, selected projects receive funding to begin implementation within 30 days. But even for those who don’t receive funding, the experience itself is powerful because it builds connections, collaboration, and relationships that often lead to a project beyond the 36 hours. Participants leave with new partnerships, new ideas, and renewed energy to take back to their schools and organizations.
The AI Moment in Education
One of the major topics our network is focused on is the safe use of artificial intelligence for students with disabilities.
AI holds enormous promise for supporting learners with disabilities. But it also raises serious questions about safety, privacy, and ethics.
One example I often share is something we’ve already seen happen: a well-meaning educator uploads a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) into an AI system, asking for help writing lesson plans.
The intention is good, but that action may also expose sensitive student data. That’s why the first questions I always ask about AI tools are simple:
What are the privacy protections?
What safety guardrails exist?
Where is the human oversight?
Innovation and efficiency cannot come at the cost of student data and civil rights protections. We can work together to uphold these protections as AI usage grows.
The Path Forward
The biggest lesson I’ve learned through my work with EALA is that the field of education already holds a tremendous amount of wisdom.
Teachers know what works. Students and families know what they need. Organizations across the sector are developing incredible tools and resources.
The real challenge is connecting those insights so they don’t stay siloed.
If we want systemic change for students with disabilities and learning differences, we need systems that support collaboration.
That’s the work of EALA—and we continue to seek partners to collaborate for systemic solutions for more inclusive education. If you’re an educator, leader, or organization working to support diverse learners, I encourage you to explore the free resources in our library or reach out to join the network. The future of inclusive education won’t be built by any one organization. It will be built together.
Credit, photo at top: Thrive Public Schools
Aurora Dreger
Project Director, Educating All Learners Alliance, InnovateEDU
Aurora Dreger serves as the project director of Educating All Learners Alliance at InnovateEDU.
