PAST SUMMITS
2026
Santa Rosa, CA -
Sonoma Academy
On a Saturday morning in October, eight school teams converged at Sonoma Academy (Santa Rosa, CA) for 3 days of strategy and design work organized by K12 Change Lab. These teams had already worked with their coach for the last six months to research a strategic challenge identified by their head of school, including ways to advance mission-driven learning, assessment, culture, or instructional practices. Teams worked over the weekend to narrow their ideas into a project plan for the year, starting with a first set of 60-day goals. On Monday, teams gathered inspiration from six innovative San Francisco schools before heading home. Now the work begins to implement change.
The team from Flintridge Preparatory School, a 7-12 day school just north of downtown Los Angeles, is creating a student leadership framework that will link various programs together into an aligned and coherent 7-12 learner journey. This team includes an associate head, assistant head, program directors, and a teacher leader exploring this challenge question: “How do we connect all our systems so that leaders emerge everywhere?”
Other schools in this cohort include Sonoma Academy, The Chapin School (NY, NY), Keys School (Palo Alto, CA), Saint Monica Preparatory (Santa Monica, CA), Children’s Day School (San Francisco, CA), Montessori Academy of Colorado (Denver, CO), and Sussex School (Missoula, MT). The challenges explore programs, pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, and more.
Each team commits to the 18-month K12 Change Lab process, which draws from the science of change management in order to help teams overcome barriers to change (see “Common Obstacles” webinar here). Each team has 1 hour of standing work time each week to review progress and meet with their coach, who visits the school twice during the school year. Teams spend the year working through a series of 60-day goal sprints as they mobilize support, iterate solutions, and gather feedback before launching the bigger change in the Fall of 2027. The program helps schools implement strategic change, develop new leaders, and build a learner culture of continuous, efficient, and harmonious change.
"The K12 Change Lab process takes you through all the ups and downs of making change, but we hung in there. We did it! To walk into the school year and for this to be real is amazing. It really feels like us."
Jennie Willens, Assistant Head of School, Echo Horizon (Culver City, CA)
2025
Washington, DC - Georgetown Day School
Eight teams from the USA and Latin America gathered in Washington, DC, for a three-day summit to advance and share their work. Over the last six months, these teams had prepared for the summit by “filling their funnel” with with survey data, focus group feedback, research, and other evidence to better understand their challenge.
The teams arrived at the summit ready ready to focus on three themes:
Day 1 - Connect
Teams explored their unique individual gifts before examining their collective “nested why” and writing a team purpose statement. They used this information and a bit of creative flair to connect with the other teams.
Day 2 - Clarity
Teams gained clarity on implementation strategies by exploring the science of school change and hearing from experts. They had the time and space to design a range of solutions and create a “Project Playbook” for gradually iterating and testing their ideas in their school community.
Day 3 - Inspiration
Teams fanned out across the DC-area to acquire further inspiration and hear from experts in school change at five exemplary schools, including our host Georgetown Day School, The Field School, The Lab School of Washington, Sheridan School, and Girls Global Academy.
"The summit provided our team the time, structure, and head-space to dig in and do some incredibly valuable design work that we are confident will benefit our school community."
Page Stites, Upper School Director, The Field School (Washington, DC)
2024
Mexico City - Tri Association
In September 2024, our team held the first-ever international K-12 Purpose Summit before the Tri-Association’s 2024 Annual Conference in Mexico City. Educators from seven countries attended the workshop, including Mexico, the Bahamas, Nicaragua, and Colombia.
In this two-day workshop, we explored the theory and science of purpose and how it relates to the global shift toward human-centered learning. Our time together was divided into two parts: The Personal Journey to Purpose and the School Expedition to Purpose.
Participants first engaged in activities that helped connect to themselves and each other. This included mapping “groove and growth” moments and sharing them with a listening partner, Calling Cards, and creating a purpose statement that captured gifts and how they are used to contribute. To wrap up the Personal Journey, participants crafted a Purpose Map that articulated why, how, and what.
The School Expedition to Purpose applied the theory and science of Purpose Learning as participants redesigned one learning experience at their school. To do so, we explored inspirational “stokes” to expand ideas and possibilities, synthesized emerging ideas to identify key trends in schools, and utilized WLS Purpose Learning Audit Tool and Purpose Planner.
This event allowed us to dive into the purpose work through a multi-cultural lens, which included not only learnings from Positive Psychology but also Blue Zones research featuring communities in Costa Rica.
"This process helped me unite my personal purpose and professional goals. It made me think a lot about what I hope to see in the future in our schools.“
Michael Adams, Executive Director, Tri-Association (Bogota, Colombia)
2024
2024 K-12 Purpose Summit
The 6th Annual K-12 Purpose Summit, held again at the beautiful Colorado Chautauqua in Boulder, Colorado, was an inspiring gathering of education leaders, innovators, and change-makers committed to redefining the role of education. The summit featured a mix of thought-provoking sessions, hands-on learning experiences, and community-building opportunities, all underscored by a shared mission to empower purpose-driven education.
During the Summit, participants visited Denver-area schools, including Graland Country Day School, Montessori Academy of Colorado (MAC), Embark Education, and Girls Athletic Leadership School (GALS), which offered an up-close look at innovative teaching methods, inclusive practices, and community engagement initiatives. These visits provided valuable insights and sparked meaningful conversations about translating vision into action. The design session at Colorado Academy's innovative REDI Lab allowed teams the time to put wheels in motion and collaborate with coaches to begin to bring ideas to fruition. Fueled by the day’s inspiration, attendees left inspired to go further in their design and ready to bring new ideas to their own school communities.
Just as in the past, the 2024 K-12 Purpose Summit was more than just a conference—it was a catalyst for change, uniting educators in their mission to cultivate purposeful learning communities.
UPON REFLECTION, 100% OF PARTICIPANTS WOULD RECOMMEND THIS EVENT TO OTHERS
“The summit was fantastic, we were able to round out our ideas as individuals with a purpose. I liked thinking about how my purpose crosses over into what we are doing professionally. I loved the site visits, it was great to see how schools were implementing purpose learning. I also adored the different people I got to interact with and learn from.”
“This summit did an excellent job of creating connections with other schools and educators that can help maintain this work over time. I was especially grateful for the school visits and time spent at REDI Lab.”
Anne Mello, Head of Middle School Science Department, Chapin School (New York, NY)
Cole Hamilton, Grade 4 Teacher, Graland Country Day School
(Denver, CO)
2023
2023 K-12 Purpose Summit
The fifth annual K-12 Purpose Summit was an adventure of learning and connection with 70 dedicated educators from around the country. As we did in 2022, the group first gathered via Zoom for two virtual sessions used to build community and plant seeds of learning about purpose. We again welcomed the wisdom of Ted Dintersmith, author of What School Could Be and executive producer of the film Most Likely to Succeed into our virtual space. In addition, small group huddles led by each of the four facilitators, met to connect, share goals, and describe artifacts that answered the question: “Why do I teach?”
For the summit itself, we gathered once again at Chautauqua in Boulder, Colorado where we stayed in stone cabins against the meadows and rock formations of the Flatirons. Working sessions provided began the personal and professional journeys. The personal journey was about connecting to others and, in the process, putting words and action steps to moving deeper into our “why” for teaching. The professional journey was the exploration of specific tools to design greater purpose into learning. With an extra day added to the itinerary for this year’s Summit, the group also had the incredible opportunity to visit a Boulder-area school on a site visit, and to spend an afternoon in a design session held at The Dawson School’s Innovation Center. Teams dreamed and designed BIG on a wide variety of projects including advisory programs, curriculum development, after school programs.
The Summit concluded with a final virtual session in which participants shared progress on the implementation of their designs, and further committed to bringing purpose to their lives and into the fabric of their school communities.
In summary, 93% of the participants reported making connections with new colleagues, and 92% said the Summit was comfortable and relaxing.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to meet like-minded educators who are passionate about bringing change and new ideas to their schools. The work around finding our personal purpose was very helpful in understanding the concept and relating it to our work in our schools and lives!”
2022
2022 K-12 Purpose Summit
The fourth annual K-12 Purpose Summit was a huge success with a full house of 60 educators who came from across the USA to explore their own purpose, connect with each other, and collaborate to design actionable work products. We gathered online for 2 virtual sessions both before and after the in-person gathering at Chautauqua in Boulder, Colorado from Feb. 9-11. The summit launched online in January 2022 with an inspiring and informative talk from Ted Dintersmith, author of What School Could Be and executive producer of the film Most Likely to Succeed. During our in-person February gathering in Boulder, the group had 2 ½ days to dive deeply into their own personal purpose journey, visit local Boulder-area schools to gain inspiration, and work towards designing an “Easy Hack” to be implemented upon return to their schools following the summit. The Summit concluded virtually in early March 2022 with educators sharing their Easy Hack implementation successes and challenges and providing feedback to each other on Moonshot ideas.
2022 Presentations (click images to view)
 Diversity in an International Context |  Bringing Purpose to Echo Horizon |  Purpose Learning in Wyoming |
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“This was a pivotal experience for me as an educator and I think it had a lot to do with the authenticity of each of the presenters, the clear amount of work and energy they put into their work, and the atmosphere you worked to create. It was special.”
2020-21
2020-21 K-12 Purpose Summit
The third annual K-12 Purpose Summit was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic but successfully launched in January 2021 as a 2-month virtual journey that brought teams of educators from 25 schools and organizations. Our time zones stretched from China and Hawaii all the way to Holland! Over a dozen virtual sessions we explored purpose and used key tools like the World Leadership School Purpose Planner to design units and programs. We also met regularly via our small groups, called Huddles, in order to reflect and build community. At the end of the program, we celebrated the implementation of our “Easy Hack” and also shared our bigger “Moonshot” idea.
Here are some images from the final Pecha Kucha presentations we shared:
“This has been a very inspiring experience for me. It has kept me going over the past few months.”
2019
2019 K-12 Purpose Summit
The second annual K-12 Purpose Summit took place in October 2019 with educators from 35 schools and organizations around the United States, Australia and China. Participants learned from experts in the field including Daren Dickson (Valor Collegiate Academies in Nashville, Tennessee) and Dr. Aaron Griffen (DSST Public Schools in Denver, Colorado). Participants engaged with like-minded educators during the conference and designed both easy hacks and moonshots to bring back to their schools. The summit culminated with the educators presenting their ideas with a Pecha Kucha-style presentation and receiving feedback from a student panel as snow fell at the Colorado Chautauqua in Boulder, Colorado.
Below is a small showcase of the weekend and the work that happened at the 2019 K-12 Purpose Summit:
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2018
2018 K-12 Purpose Summit
The first K-12 Purpose Summit took place in October 2018 with educators from 22 schools and organizations from around the United States. The conference in Boulder, Colorado, began with participants exploring and clarifying their own sense of purpose so they could coach students to do the same. Following the purpose clarification workshop, participants had the opportunity to take a deep dive into the main drivers of Purpose Learning, including student anxiety, brain science and Positive Psychology. Each educator, and group of educators, worked alongside peers to develop a program, class, and/or idea to take back to their schools.
Below are a few of the big ideas developed at the 2018 K-12 Purpose Summit:
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