The Trump administration has begun taking concrete steps toward closing the U.S. Department of Education—a move with major implications for grants, funding streams, and regulatory oversight. With new agency partnerships announced and accelerated NOFO timelines disrupting FY2025 grant cycles, many education leaders are asking what comes next. This post breaks down what’s happening, what’s being proposed, and what to watch as the federal landscape shifts.

ED has announced seven new priority areas under the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, including AI innovation, civil discourse initiatives, and short-term workforce training. This quick overview explains the funding categories, allocations, and deadlines so higher-ed institutions can prepare competitive proposals for the 2025 grant cycle.

Often resistant to change, schools are also complex organizations, with dynamics that make it hard to embrace innovation. But creating the conditions that will allow schools to evolve and adapt — with a focus on improving learning — is hard to achieve with top-down managerial leadership, requiring skilled adaptive leadership instead. But what is adaptive leadership — beyond a fuzzy theory? And how can leaders translate this kind of leadership into effective organizational change without strong top-down governance? Great questions like these are addressed head on in the book The Practice of Adaptive Leadership ((Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky. Published in well over a decade ago, the book provides a uniquely authoritative, accessible, and highly pragramatic expose and field guide for transforming professional culture in complex organizations, like K12 schools and school districts.

Despite decades of so-called reform, most K-12 classrooms remain remarkably unchanged. This post examines some of the many underlying factors that make schools resistant to change, and highlights well-established but too often overlooked roadmaps for leading meaningful and powerful system-wide improvement.

Case studies don’t belong in dusty file cabinets — when done right, they belong at the center of your marketing strategy. Discover four reasons this story-driven, documentary format builds unmatched credibility, offers highly compelling social proof, and helps prospects feel the certainty they need to engage at the next level.

In times of disruption — whether from a global pandemic, AI-driven change, or shifting social or policy trends — educators face the same essential challenge: how to adopt new approaches and seize on new technologies without losing direction. This updated post highlights the importance of building a data-informed, change-oriented professional culture while anchoring the change process in enduring principles of effective instructional design — like Backwards Planning and Bloom’s Taxonomy — so teachers stay grounded, purposeful, and innovative when everything else is in motion.

Ready to start seeking grant funding and wondering where to start and what to do? Sometimes the fastest way to proceed is to go slowly. Following a step-by-step process will help you get started, not feel overwhelmed, and stay on track for the long run. Start by knowing where to look for foundations and agencies that award grants, find grants that are a good match, track your progress. These are the key steps we’ll cover along with more detailed tips so you’ll know exactly how to start finding grants that are right for your organization and projects.

Grant Funding for Community Schools in 2022! If you haven’t started yet, it may not be too late. August is the month to submit your grant proposal for Community School funding from the OESE.

The AI wave is here, but beneath the hype, will students measurably benefit? Past lessons about EdTech adoption tell us the opportunities are there, but so are the roadblocks. Will innovators in the K-12 sector be able to navigate school setting complexities and cultures? Will educators be nimble and agile, adopting an innovation mindset?

This post explores the complex realities of school systems, the cultural and organizational forces that shape adoption, and how educators and ed-tech innovators can move beyond the “us vs. them” mindset to co-design technology that truly advances teaching, learning, and equity.

Smart organizations understand the dollars and sense of partnering with a qualified grants professional. Discover why the fees are worth it when you’re pursuing the right opportunities, and learn how indepdent grant professionals work, how to hire one that’s right for your organization, what it costs, and pitfalls to avoid.

Content marketing is a strategic approach to creating and sharing valuable, relevant content—such as blogs, white papers, and videos—to attract and engage a target audience. Unlike traditional advertising, it builds trust, authority, and long-term customer relationships through information and insight rather than direct promotion.

Do you need to rethink your approach to education marketing? Learn what separates transactional outreach from impact-driven collaboration — and how EdPro helps education innovators earn trust and influence change.

On July 17 the Federal Reserve changed Main Street lending rules, giving nonprofit organizations access to emergency loans alongside for-profit businesses

In addition to the substantial networks of bribery and racketeering uncovered by the Varsity Blues investigation, recent news also includes lesser known college admissions stories. Harvard and the University of California Regents are both contending with lawsuits or potential lawsuits alleging discriminatory admissions practices. Finally, there are a growing number of reports about students already in college, and students aspiring to college, suffering from unprecedented rates of anxiety, depression and other stress-related illnesses…