Introducing the 2026 State Superintendent Forum Action Brief

For state education leaders, the question of the decade is no longer how to build defensive "guardrails" to keep technology out. The real challenge is how we architect a proactive, R&D-powered strategy that fuses human ingenuity with machine intelligence to transform learning outcomes.

This is not a distant challenge. Recent developments (from high-profile warnings about AI's societal impact to district-level policy decisions restricting or banning AI use) signal that education leaders face immediate stakes. The question is not whether AI will transform learning outcomes. The question is who decides how, and whether that transformation serves all students equally.

At ASU+GSV, our mission is anchored in a simple, non-negotiable truth: ALL people deserve equal access to the future. To achieve that end, we must scale breakthrough innovations across the entire PreK to Gray learning and workforce landscape. But innovation must not outrun evidence. True system transformation happens at the intersection of bold experimentation and empirical rigor: the Power of Fusion.

How can state education leaders leverage both experimentation and empirical rigor in tandem?

To explore this frontier, ASU+GSV and College Board co-convened the inaugural State Superintendent Forum in San Diego at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit. This closed-door working session brought together sitting state chiefs, commissioners, deputy leaders, former U.S. secretaries of education, and cross-sector leaders for peer-level problem-solving. The ASU+GSV Summit serves as the nation’s largest annual convergence of the education and workforce ecosystem, and the Forum was designed to harness that unique proximity. Given its commitment to support state leaders as they advance better outcomes for students, College Board partnered with us on this conversation to help all students build the skills and expertise that an evolving future demands and open more pathways to opportunity.

The State Superintendent Forum was anchored in the State Education R&D Playbook (co-created by Transcend, Education Reimagined, and the Alliance for Learning Innovation) challenging leaders to push past comfortable recaps and commit to durable, ground-level strategies. The result of these conversations? The inaugural State Superintendent Forum Action Brief.

What is the State Superintendent Forum Action Brief?

This brief translates the Forum’s collaborative insights into a three-part agenda for state leadership. It identifies the high-leverage areas for action and defines the durable investments in data infrastructure, foundational skills, and educator capacity that are required to turn bold vision into consistent, systemic impact in an era of rapid change.

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How can I access insights from the State Superintendent Forum Action Brief?

Download the report to read it in full. ASU+GSV resources like action briefs, look books, market maps, and more are always available on the Reports & Resources page on the ASU+GSV Summit website.