Tyton Partners Releases Choose to Learn 2026: K-12 Public Systems Under Pressure
April 23, 2026 PapersNew report highlights how mounting pressure on public school systems is ushering in a new phase of focused…
New report highlights how mounting pressure on public school systems is ushering in a new phase of focused high school redesign efforts.
Tyton Partners, with support from the Walton Family Foundation, has released Choose to Learn 2026: K-12 Public Systems Under Pressure – High School Redesign as a Catalyst to Retention and (Re)Enrollment. This fourth installment in a multi-year research series takes a new approach. While earlier analyses focused on the rise of choice policies and how parent demand is shifting outside the system, this study examines how sustained enrollment pressure and shifting expectations are driving districts and charter networks to rethink the high school model.
The report draws on a mixed-methods approach that pairs national quantitative data with qualitative insights from the field, including a survey of more than 250 district and public charter administrators, in-depth case studies of 25 systems pursuing high school redesign in varied local contexts, and interviews with organizations and leaders at the forefront of K-12 system transformation. It finds that while high school redesign efforts are now widespread, their impact on enrollment and student outcomes depends less on availability and more on how effectively they are implemented and adopted.
Choose to Learn 2026 offers a timely look at how public systems are evolving from experimentation with high school redesign to more targeted execution. It highlights the critical role of coherent system design in driving success, and underscores the need for aligned partners to help translate promising models into sustained, systemwide impact.
Key insights from the report include:
- School redesign is widespread, but impact is more limited. Flexible models and structured pathways are now common in public systems (>75% availability), yet most programs reach only a small share of students.
- Participation, not program count, drives enrollment impact. Districts that engage a larger share of students in redesigned programs are more likely to see stable or growing enrollment. Depth matters more than breadth, even as many systems continue to expand offerings rather than scale what’s working.
- The challenge is execution, not innovation. After more than a decade of experimentation, the core issue is no longer a lack of new models. Systems that focus on high-demand programs, prioritize student engagement, and implement models that can scale are best positioned to drive stronger outcomes in the near term and enrollment impact over time.