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Issue 2: Three Summer Moves to Shape the Next Five Years

  • Writer: Mike Peck
    Mike Peck
  • Jul 28
  • 5 min read

Updated: Aug 13

Seizing the Summer for Strategic Growth

July rarely brings rest in educational leadership—just a different kind of busy. Empty classrooms and silent hallways pause the daily rush of putting out fires long enough for us to take a breath and scan the horizon. 

Think of it like merging onto a highway: the faster you travel, the farther ahead you must look. Technology is an eight‑lane expressway that keeps adding lanes every year; if we stare only at the bumper in front of us, small course corrections turn into white‑knuckle swerves.

July is our chance to lengthen that following distance.  It’s a chance to take a look a few miles down the road and plot the route not just for next semester but for the next five years. 

In this Strategy Issue, Compass EDU offers systems and tools to help you and your team flip the script: rebalance time toward future‑focused work using strategic foresight and innovation portfolios. By planning for multiple possible futures, we can ready our schools for an accelerated future full of possibilities.


Three Ways to Maximize Your Summer Strategy Window

Those who work in schools know just how short July can feel and once August hits, it’s full steam ahead.  So, making the most of this period requires careful planning and decision-making.  This year, we’re focusing on three key moves: 


  • auditing your current practices

  • scanning for emerging trends

  • piloting innovative ideas. 


If you already know the basics of strategic foresight, these steps will look familiar; they’re simply streamlined for the many hats school and district leaders wear. The chart that follows offers some practical ways in which you can get started planning the future today.

Better still, the same foresight tools work in any part of your organization, technology, budgeting, special education, you name it. My examples lean toward tech (that’s my daily lane), but I urge you to test them in other areas as well. The resource links that follow dive deeper into each method and show how to adapt them to your context.


I want to give you some examples of what these steps might look like in practice, so I’ve paired each move with a brief real-world snapshot from districts already putting the tactic to work. Scan the examples, borrow what fits, and use the linked resources for a deeper dive into adapting each method to your own context.


Audit & Align: One tool that I found particularly helpful in our AI strategy planning was the Before K-12 Generative AI Readiness Checklist developed by CoSN and other partners. The 25-item self-audit scores your district across strategy, data, governance, talent, and equity—so you see in black-and-white where you’re AI-prepared and where you’re exposed. For our school, this resource gave us a way to audit the work that we have been doing around AI, providing additional data points and recommendations for guiding our work going forward.


Signal Scan: Stay ahead by monitoring 2025 trends such as:


  • AI in Education: AI tools are transforming classrooms with personalized tutoring and automated grading, raising questions about teaching roles by 2027.

  • Teacher Shortages: With 23% of teachers considering leaving within two years (EdWeek, 2024), staffing strategies are critical.

  • Battle of the browsers: The last couple of months have seen a lot of drama powered by AI companies moving into the browser space.  While tangential to education, AI built into and capable of doing things in the browser could have big implications for our work online (students and teachers).

  • AI Fueling Entrepreneurs: AI tools continue to unlock new capabilities for people to create and build things online.  Products like lovable and bolt allow people with no programming or coding skills to spin up complete applications in minutes.  Rachelle Dene Poth shares how tools like this are beginning to have an impact in education in her article From Idea to Impact: How AI is Fueling the Next Generation of Student Entrepreneurs


Pilot & Prototype: Innovative schools are testing new approaches. Horace Mann Elementary School in Washington, D.C., has embraced student-centered personalized learning, while Epic Elementary School in North Kansas City, MO, uses project-based learning in double classrooms. Discover more at Getting Smart’s list of innovative schools.

Strategic foresight isn’t about predicting the future; it’s about preparing for multiple possibilities. This approach helps leaders anticipate disruptions and seize opportunities. Here’s how to apply it:


  • Frame a Key Question: Start with a question like, “How might AI-driven instruction reshape our teaching by 2027?”

  • Identify Drivers with EDUCATE Analysis: Through my own learning, I found most strategic foresight frameworks oriented towards the business context. Using existing frameworks, I have developed what I call the EDUCATE framework, which stands for External trends, Digital advancements, Unforeseen events, Community needs, Academic factors, Technological tools, Economic conditions. Identifying key drivers in these areas can help you identify where strategic actions best align with your needs.

  • Develop Scenarios: Plot high-impact uncertainties (e.g., technology adoption vs. budget constraints) into contrasting future scenarios.  Below you will find an example of how you might map different scenarios.


Applying an ecosystem services approach to support land-use planning: a case study in Koboko district, Uganda - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/mpact-vs-uncertainty-matrix-used-for-the-scenario-logics_fig2_270459429 [accessed 11 Jul 2025]


  • Stress Test: Evaluate your current strategy against each scenario to identify robust actions that work across multiple futures.


Strategic foresight helps you plan for such futures by diversifying curricula and integrating blended learning now. Learn more in Futures Platform’s guideline on strategic foresight in education planning.


Building an Innovation Portfolio

Staying ahead of the curve takes some serious planning.  One way to stay in front is to treat innovation like an investment portfolio, balancing safe bets with bold experiments.  McKinsey’s Three Horizons Model offers us one way to think about innovation portfolio management. 


  • Core (70%): Enhance existing practices, like refining blended learning to improve student engagement.

  • Adjacent (20%): Test related innovations, such as piloting project-based learning to foster critical thinking.

  • Transformational (10%): Explore radical ideas, like AI-driven tutors or fully personalized learning paths.


Regular reviews of your innovation portfolio ensure a balance of stability and experimentation, keeping your district agile.


Examples in Action: Wildwood Elementary School’s outdoor classroom and garden-based learning represent adjacent innovations, enhancing traditional teaching with experiential methods. Meanwhile, schools like Red Bridge Education in San Francisco, with mastery-based learning, are pursuing transformational changes. See more examples at Getting Smart’s innovative schools list.


Resource Roundup



From the Lab: Reader Engagement


  • Invitation: Share a summer pilot your school is implementing for a potential feature in Issue 3.

  • Call to Action: Forward this newsletter to a colleague and receive our exclusive AI Leadership Lab Quick-Start Guide.


Conclusion: Shaping the Future Today

The speed of innovation is a challenge, but it’s not insurmountable. By leveraging strategic foresight and building a balanced innovation portfolio, you can shift from reactive to proactive leadership. This July, use the calm to plan for multiple futures, ensuring your schools are ready for whatever lies ahead.


Call-to-Action

Subscribe to Compass EDU, share your strategies in the comments, or forward this newsletter to advance strategic thinking across education leadership.

 
 
 

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