R-PEP 101 is Empower Schools’ practical guide to Rural Pathway Excellence Partnerships, a Texas model that helps rural districts work together to expand college and career pathways. The guide explains how policy, funding, higher education partnerships, and workforce collaboration can support rural students and communities.

Empower Schools created The Texas Partnerships Toolkit, bringing together statewide data, local examples, and practical tools to help communities understand how Texas Partnerships work, what they are accomplishing, and what high-quality implementation can look like.

This national guide examines six work-based learning programs and the policies, partnerships, staffing, funding, and infrastructure that help career-connected learning succeed. Four of the featured programs are supported by Empower Schools.

Empower Schools CEO and Partner Alyssa Morton planned and moderated this NewSchools Summit 2026 conversation with leaders from NYC Public Schools, Aldine ISD, and Sumner County Public Schools. The panel explores career-connected learning, AI, student voice, philanthropy, facilities, and the leadership required to scale innovation across districts.

Empower Schools’ report on Innovation School policy examines how state laws can create enabling conditions for school-level innovation. The report analyzes policy design, school autonomy, educator empowerment, accountability, and sustainability, with recommendations for states seeking to support high-quality, durable Innovation Schools.

Empower Schools Partner Matt Matera speaks with educators from the Leadership Academy Network about how an SB 1882 partnership between Fort Worth ISD and Texas Wesleyan University supports teacher retention, professional growth, instructional flexibility, and stronger student outcomes.

State lawmakers and rural education leaders examine how shared career pathways, sustainable funding, and cross-district collaboration can expand opportunity for rural students.

Created and published by the Texas Education Agency in partnership with Empower Schools, this guide walks Texas districts through assessing community need, selecting a pre-K partnership structure, combining funding sources, authorizing an operating partner, and meeting staffing, enrollment, and regulatory requirements.

In Texas Partnerships with the Leadership Academy Network, Empower Schools examines how Fort Worth ISD and Texas Wesleyan University used a Texas Partnership under SB 1882 to sustain and strengthen the Leadership Academy Network. The case study highlights school-level autonomy, data-driven instruction, teacher development, extended learning time, and community-based supports.

This SXSW EDU panel brings together rural education leaders from Texas, Colorado, and Indiana. They share how Rural Collaboratives help districts pool resources, expand college and career pathways, coordinate with employers and higher education, and preserve opportunity within rural communities.

Rural leaders share how collaboration, workforce investment, place-based learning, policy, and storytelling can expand opportunity for students in small communities.

The Rural Collaborative Toolkit is a step-by-step guide for planning, designing, implementing, and sustaining rural school collaboratives. The toolkit helps rural leaders build shared vision, governance, partnerships, funding, implementation plans, and long-term systems of support for cross-district collaboration.