A Portrait of an Evidence-Based Education Ecosystem

December 19, 2025 | By the LEARN Network

The U.S. education system is navigating a moment of profound transformation. Rapid advances in artificial intelligence, evolving workforce demands, and growing concerns about student engagement and achievement are reshaping expectations for how schools prepare young people for the future.

While the field has invested heavily in education research to address challenges and design future-oriented solutions, that research often remains inaccessible, abstruse, and disconnected from day-to-day practice.

To help address this challenge, the LEARN Network has released a new white paper and a detailed infographic offering a clear and actionable vision for how leaders, educators, and communities can better use research and evidence to support student success, both now and in the future.

Drawing on insights from the LEARN Network’s 2025 summer panel series – which featured national, state, and local educational leaders from across the U.S. – the publications explore what an evidence-based education ecosystem could look like in practice and how education leaders can work together to build it.

“At a time when education is changing faster than ever, we have a responsibility to ensure that decisions are guided by the best evidence available. These new resources reflect the thoughts, experiences, and recommendations of leaders nationwide who are committed to building a learning ecosystem that is adaptive, student-centered, and grounded in what works.”

– Kerry Friedman, LEARN Network Director

The white paper, titled “Portrait of an Evidence-Based Education Ecosystem: Driven by a Future-Ready Portrait of a Graduate”, is inspired by the growing use of “Portraits of a Graduate” across the country. Portraits of a Graduate articulate the competencies students need for future success. The proposed Portrait of an Evidence-Based Ecosystem builds on that foundation to envision a living infrastructure for learning – one that connects rigorous research, authentic student work, and practitioner and community insights into a continuous cycle of improvement.

The accompanying infographic brings that vision to life, vividly illustrating how leaders, educators, learners, and communities can work together to make an evidence-based ecosystem a reality.

Part vision and part practical roadmap, these resources present detailed insights, challenges, opportunities, and real-world strategies for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners working to build an education system where evidence is not only generated and shared, but actively and effectively used to guide decision-making.

Portrait of an Evidence-Based Education Ecosystem

Tags: Evidence-based Policymakers Research & Developers Research and evaluation