Behind the Scenes of the Education Impact Engine
In our Thinkering Voices series, we’re traveling behind the scenes of the education impact engine — the living ecosystem of innovators, educators, technologists, librarians, and leaders whose ideas shape the future of learning.
Our goal?
To listen deeply, understand the pressure points, honor the people doing the invisible work — and empower them to build what comes next.
This week, as we prepare for NYSCATE, we sat down with one of the most influential, forward-looking voices in K–12 innovation: Stacy Hawthorne, Board Chair of CoSN, national thought leader on AI strategy, and the architect behind some of the most boundary-pushing school models in the country.
Her conversation with Thinkering Founder Evin Schwartz was electric.
And it revealed exactly what schools need next.
“Great teachers making bad decisions for good reasons.”
— Stacy Hawthorne
That single sentence might be the cleanest diagnosis of the current moment in K–12 technology.
Throughout the interview, Stacy returned to a simple, powerful truth:
Teachers are trying to help kids — but the system isn’t built to help teachers help kids.
Whether it’s data privacy, AI adoption, curriculum alignment, or innovation roadblocks, what we see on the ground is not resistance — it’s misalignment.
Teachers are improvising solutions in an ecosystem that wasn’t designed for the world we live in now.
And if schools want to be future-ready, Stacy argues, we need to stop treating teachers as end-users and start treating them as co-designers.
Who Is Stacy Hawthorne?
A Creative Technologist Building the Schools We Need
Before she was one of the most respected voices in edtech, Stacy started in business, left because it didn’t fulfill her, and became a teacher — building one of the first classrooms in the state of Ohio to teach with a full class set of iPod Touches.
From there, she became:
Director of Technology for a district
Award-winning blended learning architect
National consultant building innovative models across the U.S.
Designer of a fully-online school for profoundly gifted learners (before COVID, during COVID, and still online today)
Executive Director of the EdTech Leaders Alliance
Board Chair of CoSN, leading national work in AI, cybersecurity, interoperability, and data privacy
She has touched every layer of the system — from classroom to statewide policy.
That perspective is rare.
And necessary.
“AI cannot be one person’s job.”
— Stacy Hawthorne
Stacy’s biggest warning to schools heading into 2026 mirrors what Thinkering sees across the country:
Schools are rushing toward AI — without strategy, without alignment, and without guardrails.
Her presentation Beyond the Buzz: Developing an AI Strategy That Works doesn’t list apps.
It lists what schools actually need:
✔ Executive Alignment
✔ Data Readiness
✔ Operational & Security Infrastructure
✔ Academic and Digital Literacies
✔ Teacher Support Systems
✔ Parallel Policy Paths
✔ Cultural Readiness
Most importantly:
AI must be built within existing cybersecurity and data privacy protocols — not outside of them.
This is where most districts stumble: adding AI as an “extra layer” rather than integrating it into the architecture.
The Fastest-Growing Industry for AI Isn’t Tech — It’s Education
Yes: education is now #2 in AI growth across industries.
And yet the infrastructure isn’t keeping up.
That’s why Stacy worries about the well-intentioned teacher who uploads a class roster into an AI tool they found in a vendor hall — not out of carelessness, but out of love for their students.
“The biggest data privacy issues in education are great teachers making bad decisions for the right reasons.”
This is the tension:
Teachers want to innovate.
Systems aren’t set up to support them.
“Every rule we put in place today can become a barrier to innovation tomorrow.”
— Stacy Hawthorne
Stacy outlined three foundational principles she believes every future-ready school must adopt:
1. Non-Evaluative Feedback for Teachers
If the person giving feedback is also evaluating job performance, teachers won’t take creative risks.
They’ll play it safe.
They’ll avoid innovation.
Future-ready schools need coaching cultures, not compliance cultures.
2. Personal Accountability Over Anonymity
Social media has trained people to attack from behind a screen name.
Schools must do the opposite.
Accountability breeds trust.
Trust breeds collaboration.
Collaboration breeds culture.
“If you say something offensive, I should talk to you — not blast you online.”
3. A Human-First Approach
This is where Stacy’s philosophy aligns deeply with Thinkering.
Policies matter.
But humans matter more.
A “10% off per day” late policy means nothing
when a student’s mother is in the hospital
or their family experienced trauma
or their home life is unstable.
“Look at the human in front of you.
What do they need today to become the best version of themselves tomorrow?”
This isn’t softness.
This is systems design with empathy.
If She Were Building a School Tomorrow
When Evin asked what Stacy would implement first, she didn’t mention AI, devices, or curriculum.
She said:
“I’d hire the most creative people — the ones who challenge systems and imagine alternatives.”
Innovation starts with people, not programs.
This is the heart of Thinkering’s Fellowship model.
Scaling Transformation: The Question Behind All Questions
Stacy is often asked — including at the Stanford Learning Accelerator — one question:
“How do we scale the kinds of models you’ve built?”
Her answer is honest:
“We need help evangelizing this.
We need people advocating at local and state levels for change.
And I’m willing to do that work — I just need partners.”
This is where Thinkering comes in.
Our mission is to help educators lead this change —
not through top-down reform,
but through bottom-up innovation.
Why This Conversation Matters for NYSCATE
As we head to NYSCATE with a full media booth, connecting with educators, librarians, CTOs, and leaders from across the country, this interview with Stacy sets the tone.
It reminds us why Thinkering exists:
To empower educators to build the schools they wish existed.
To remove red tape so creativity can flourish.
To turn courage into systems change.
To humanize learning — everywhere.
Stacy’s vision aligns with ours at every point.
And it’s why we want educators like you to join the movement.
A Fellowship for the Future of Learning
The Thinkering Fellowship is a 10-week design experience that surrounds educators with mentors, innovators, technologists, and global partners — helping them build and launch their dream education project.
No red tape.
No bureaucracy.
Just creativity, community, and momentum.
Because the future of learning will not be built by systems alone.
It will be built by people like you.
If Stacy’s call for courageous, human-first innovation resonates with you…
Apply or Nominate a Rockstar Educator - Click the Article Below
You’ve Been Building Toward This Moment
For every educator who’s ever stayed up late wondering how to make a real difference, this is for you.
