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The world has changed; so too must our education system.

Why You Should Attend

Connection and Collaboration

At the Symposium, you’ll find a community of innovators from across the education transformation space who are engaging in action-oriented learning and development. You’ll have the chance to learn about schools, districts, and states adopting next generation learning models, get an inside look at the latest research and policy developments, and leave with the tools and the largest community of innovative practice to advance change in your own work.

Real-World Solutions and Visionaries from the Field

The Aurora Institute Symposium is the field’s largest gathering of education innovators working to transform K-12 education. You’ll find a big tent of attendees from across the education innovation space who are pushing for learning to happen outside of traditional school walls, and to be more personalized, competency-based, and future-focused. The Symposium is the premiere event for learning about next generation learning models, anytime, anywhere learning, the latest policy developments to enable the future, research and best practices around innovations, and trends around future-focused education transformation.

At the Symposium, you’ll have the chance to learn about schools, districts, and states adopting next generation learning models, get an inside look at the latest research and policy developments, and leave with the tools and the largest community of innovative practice to advance change in your own work.

Professional Learning

The Symposium offers highly rated professional development in the field for educators, school leaders, superintendents, board members, coaches, and practitioners. Our sessions and workshops provide hands-on, interactive learning experiences, and thoughtful strategies to advance student-centered pedagogy. The conference provides state and local policymakers, education leaders, and advocates with comprehensive information on new trends, successful policies, common entry points, financing programs, and the latest innovations that are transforming education for the 21st century.

More than 92 percent of attendees say the Symposium deepens their knowledge of student-centered learning. They tell us that what they learn directly applies to their jobs and leads to concrete implementation steps or other forward movement at their schools and organizations. Ninety-three percent say they would attend a future Aurora Institute Symposium to meet their networking and learning needs.

Why We Created the Symposium

The Symposium brings together experts, practitioners, teachers, policymakers, technical assistance providers, and researchers to offer an opportunity for deepening understanding on a variety of new student-centered learning models while affording a big picture view on the future of K-12 education. It is a forum to showcase the field’s brightest ideas; emerging trends; and the models, strategies, and tools that are transforming K-12 schools around the globe.

Who Is the Symposium for?

Are you…

  • An education leader planning and launching innovative, next gen learning models who is ready to get started with personalized, competency-based education?
  • A policymaker that wants to push your education system forward to best serve students?
  • A researcher exploring next gen teaching and learning models?
  • A technical assistance provider supporting education transformation?
  • An innovator in K-12 education looking to find like-minded colleagues?

If any of these descriptions apply to you, then the Symposium is the place for you!

A middle school teacher listens during a team planning session.
In Attendees’ Own Words
``A game-changing symposium. Enlightening, interesting and motivating!``

``We have recently begun the PCBL transition and hearing the experiences and stories of other districts engaged in these practices expanded my knowledge. I also really enjoyed the international perspective and hope there would be more in future symposiums. Hands down one of the best conferences I've attended in years!``

``Even though I LIVE in a rural community, I had never stopped to consider that the very things I love about my community are assets that could be leveraged in our schools. It's easy to get bogged down in thinking deficit-based around what rural schools lack - this was a refreshing perspective that changed my thinking.``

``Always interesting to hear about others' journeys in this work. Thank you for including teacher and student voices. It is so important to hear from them and understand the impact at their levels and also how they have struggled, learned, and been successful in the work.``

``I believe that teachers and school leaders are yearning for discrete examples of how this kind of approach to teaching can and does look. Thank you to our speakers for providing that even in your limited speaking time. It was amazing!``