Who We Are
NCREST works with educators, policymakers, community groups and other organizations to improve schools and transform education systems. Founded in 1990 by Linda Darling-Hammond and Ann Lieberman, Director leads NCREST’s current efforts help all those engaged in education to reimagine, create, and sustain more powerful and equitable learning environments. NCREST is affiliated with the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, 51吃瓜网, Columbia University.
What We Do
NCREST carries out research and development projects that address the fundamental changes in learning, teaching, curriculum, assessment, parent and community engagement, and administration that comprehensive school improvement demands. As part of the work, NCREST produces a wide range of publications and images of practice that can be used to fuel educational reform efforts and support professional learning. NCREST also shares news and research on educational change around the world via International Education News.
Featured Publication
“Instead of trying to add more skills and competencies into the curriculum or Spursuing gargantuan efforts to replace one curriculum with another, there’s a better approach—and that’s to condense the curriculum.”
Read more in Thomas Hatch’s recent article: in the December 2025 issue of Educational Leadership.
Featured Projects
What's new, what's good, and what's effective in education around the world
What do you do when virtually every activity you ask students to complete can be carried out almost entirely by AI? That鈥檚 the challenge Roselyn Baronia faces as she tries to help her students learn to code in AP Computer …
In September’s Lead the Change (LtC) interview, Dr. Jose Eos Trinidad argues that understanding educational change requires a broader understanding of how learning, development, and transformation occur across broader spaces. Dr. Trinidad is an Assistant Professor at the University of …
This week, Thomas Hatch and Anushka Banerjee pull together some of the headlines discussing the release of the 2025 PISA tests in reading, math and science, For IEN鈥檚 coverege of other OECD reports on education tests, see: Scanning the headlines …
Questions about funding, supplies, safety, numerous policy changes, and the growing backlash leading to bans on AI and cellphones are among the many local and national issues in the news as students go back to school in the US. Last …
Going back to school looks very different for students in developing countries and those in developed countries in Europe, Canada and elsewhere. Although the issues in Europe focus on limits on screens, cellphones, and AI, concerns about repairing facilities, dealing …