🗽 Five weeks to New York. Back to School turns 25.

Hello 👋

The 25th Annual Back to School Summit runs 15–17 September at Tribeca Rooftop + 360° in New York. The agenda is full of amazing speakers and content and through it all is a question: what counts as proof that education works, and who gets to say so. Administrators, researchers, investors, educators, policymakers, and employers are all answering it. Not the same way.

💰 Investors want to see the numbers.

Capital Markets and Education Update — Jeff Silber, BMO Capital Markets, on how institutional investors are reading the sector in 2026.

New Capital Models — Miriam Altman-Reyes (Brass Ring Ventures) • Amit Patel (Owl Ventures) • Geo Kane (CapitalizEd) • John Soleanicov (EdTechnical) on where the money is coming from now that venture has pulled back.

🏛 Policy is setting the test.

Workforce Policy in Transition — Amanda Winters (US Chamber of Commerce Foundation) on apprenticeships, employer incentives, and whether anyone has the capacity to deliver them.

Higher Ed Policy Outlook — Ted Eismeier • Noah Sudow • Alex Davis (Whiteboard Advisors) on what has moved on funding and accountability, and how institutions are responding. Workforce Pell went live on 1 July and the first approved programme landed last week, so this session will be critical.

🏛 Educators are redesigning the system.

Education at an Inflection Point with Philip Moyer (McGraw Hill) • Dr Bridget Burns (University Innovation Alliance) • Chike Aguh (Kapor Center), moderated by Brad Wolverton (The Chronicle of Higher Education).

Jeff Selingo takes the fireside with Dr Ann Kirschner to discuss Redefining Value in Higher Education

Acceleration by Design — Tracey Burns (NCEE) • Jessica Furer (Wallace Foundation) on the approaches education systems NCEE calls Rapid Risers, and what they did that others haven't to produce outcomes.

Closing Panel: The Great Higher Education Reset — Is College Worth It? — Dr Cappy Hill (Ithaka S+R) • Daniel Pianko (Achieve Partners) on whether the sector is having a crisis of confidence or a reckoning with what counts as a good education.

🎓 Employers have stopped waiting.

The New Talent Playbook — Professor Mitchell Stevens (Stanford) • Eva Sage-Gavin (National Academies) • Susan Youngblood (Bessemer Venture Partners) on companies that have given up buying talent and started building it from within.

🤖 AI doesn't have its own track, it will underpin discussions across the Summit.

From Principles to Practice puts QS Responsible AI Consortium members and institutional leaders into working groups on governance and implementation.

Screens and Schools — Juliette Norrmén-Smith (UNICEF) • Erin Mote (InnovateEDU) • Donatella Solda (FEM Digital) — looks at the techlash, and what it does to instructional materials and edtech adoption when the evidence is still thin and pushback on screens is rampant.

⏰ Join us in New York → Use code BTSADS20 for 20% off.

📍 Upcoming Education Innovation Events

⭐ AI & Digital Innovation Spotlight

🧠 Skillsoft expanded its Skills Management platform with an AI Coach, to connect employee performance to personalized guidance, skills development, and career progression support.

☁️ Instructure and the AWS Education Equity Initiative will build AI-powered LMS migration tooling and expand Canvas Career, targeting 5.4 million learners over four years.

🤝 Policy & Partnerships

⚖️ Tennessee enacted new legislation to strengthen AI education and digital literacy, expanding AI-focused learning opportunities while establishing guidance for the responsible use of AI in education.

🎓 Iowa Central Community College became the first institution in the US to receive federal Workforce Pell approval, enabling eligible students to access financial aid for short-term workforce training and career-focused education programs.

🌐 JNTU Hyderabad signed an MoU with Coursera to expand access to online courses, providing students with industry-aligned learning opportunities and globally recognized digital credentials to enhance workforce readiness.

💪 Power Moves & Funding

Capital moved in two directions last week. Asian operators are buying Western degree-granting capacity, and US platforms are buying specialist content and back-office systems they'd otherwise have to build.

🎓 Kaplan is selling Dublin Business School, Ireland's large independent institution, to China's Chunlai Education Group for $127.5 M, exiting a market that's gaining international enrolment share.

🤝 Imagine Learning acquired Wayside Publishing, adding world language content to its K–12 platform rather than building it in-house.

🧑‍🏫 Ascend Learning acquired the Teaching Assignment Management System (TAMS), pushing consolidation into institutional operations rather than teaching and learning.

🧑‍💻 Imarticus Learning acquired Singapore's Bells Institute of Higher Learning, its entry point into Southeast Asian professional education.