The three 2026 Carnegie Award for Impact recipients are each having a significant impact on student success in high school and preparing students to thrive beyond graduation. These networks and districts are advancing students’ success in their pivotal 9th grade year, engaging graduates in the real world learning experiences in high school that prepare them for their future paths, and improving students’ postsecondary readiness.
The Carnegie Award for Impact recognizes examples of significant impact on high school student success and preparation for career and postsecondary opportunities. With this award, Carnegie shines a light on models, approaches and continuous improvement practices that catalyze consistent and persuasive student results, and the key roles different stakeholders play in sustaining positive improvement.
With generous support from the Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation launched the award this year to celebrate work that has real impact on young people’s life trajectories and to call attention to practices that are transferable to other systems looking to achieve similar outcomes for students. “We are thrilled to honor these educators for the impact they are having on student experience and outcomes, and to share practical lessons from their work with the field,” said Timothy F.C. Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. “CORE, Hemet and Liberty are doing powerful work to equip young people for success.”
The 2026 recipients are:
- 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.
This group of recipients stand out for the impact that they have seen over time and the intentional continuous improvement actions that continue to propel their achievement. The focused effort of the educators, leaders, families, and organizational partners working in these systems has prepared thousands of students to continue forward into fulfilling futures.
Over the next few months the Carnegie Foundation will collaborate with recipients to capture and share their individual impact stories and how their work has developed over time. Recipients will present together at the National Summit on Improvement in Education March 30-April 1, 2026 in San Diego, reflecting on key lessons learned and discussing the practices that have become central to achieving results in their systems.
Nearly 100 applications representing work taking place in 28 states and the District of Columbia were submitted for the 2026 award. Impact stories described students’ access to and success in mathematics courses; their participation in internships, career-technical education, and other real-world learning opportunities; freshmen completing their critical 9th grade year on-track to graduate and with a 3.0 or higher GPA; and seniors demonstrating the communication, critical thinking, and collaboration skills described in a district’s portrait of a graduate.
The Carnegie Foundation is grateful to the many people from organizations across the educational community who have participated in this first award cycle as peer reviewers, technical advisors, and applicants. The application for the 2027 Carnegie Award for Impact will open later this year.
The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. Join our mailing list and follow Carnegie on social.
The National Summit on Improvement in Education, hosted by the National Coalition for Improvement in Education (NCIE), will be held March 30-April 1, 2026, in San Diego, California. The National Summit is the annual gathering and rallying point for the vibrant and diverse community of improvers who are working to create educational systems where all young people learn and thrive.
