From EngageNY to National Impact
How UnboundEd’s Standards Institute grew from a New York state initiative to a national movement
In 2015, as Race to the Top wound down, a question emerged: What if the work of EngageNY could reach every school, not just in New York, but nationwide? What began as a state initiative to develop and scale the use of high-quality, grade-level instructional materials was coalescing as the foundation for a bold vision: a national movement to support schools in implementing high-quality instructional materials and aligned instruction in order to meet the needs of every single learner in every single classroom.
EngageNY launched as a free, standards-aligned K–12 ELA and math curriculum. Created through New York State’s Race to the Top funding, it aimed to help teachers deliver standards-aligned instruction that equipped students for success in college and career.
Our Reach and Impact (2022–2025)
We’ve worked across 45 states.
We’ve partnered with 852 school districts and education agencies.
We’ve supported 13,449,305 students.
The team behind EngageNY prioritized teacher access and effectiveness from day one. “We made sure that teachers had easy access to high-quality materials that supported grade-level instruction,” recalls Laura Smith, a member of the EngageNY team and now Chief Operating Officer of UnboundEd.
UnboundEd Launches a National Movement
By 2015, EngageNY had sparked a national groundswell, reaching more than 30 million downloads of curriculum modules, test materials, and other resources. With educators traveling to New York from all across the country for professional learning, the EngageNY team found themselves wondering: Could EngageNY scale to benefit educators nationwide?
“Some of the team members who had been part of that initiative within the state education department, along with philanthropists who had supported NY’s effort, saw the need at a national level to support educators to adopt and effectively use grade-level instructional materials,” Smith said. And so UnboundEd was born.
Smith drafted the first business plan starting on Christmas Eve 2014, and by summer 2015, the newly christened organization convened the first Standards Institute™ in Washington, D.C., providing educators an immersive, in-person, graduate course-like 30-hour learning experience focused on grade-level standards, standards-aligned curriculum, and impactful teaching practices.
Standards Institute™: A Blueprint for Educator Success
Standards Institute has since become UnboundEd’s flagship offering, equipping educators everywhere to bring grade-level, engaging, affirming, and meaningful — GLEAM® — instruction to life in every single classroom. Simply put, GLEAM is UnboundEd’s blueprint for effective instruction. Instruction that ensures every student in every classroom gets what they need to succeed academically and throughout their lives and careers. Instruction that equips educators everywhere to break the predictability of historic achievement patterns so all kids thrive.
GLEAM Instruction
Grade-level: Instruction that is aligned with the grade-appropriate college and career standards.
Engaging: Instruction that fosters persistence, active learning, and academic agency by tapping into students’ assets.
Affirming: Instruction that builds a caring, collaborative classroom community by uplifting students’ identities and experiences in service of learning.
Meaningful: Instruction that cultivates civic agency and critical thinking by making learning relevant to issues students encounter beyond the classroom.
Over the four days of Standards Institute, educators learn to unpack and understand standards, scaffold instruction, and foster productive struggle, leaving them equipped to uphold academic rigor and improve outcomes for every single student in the classroom. “We always start with grade-level content,” Smith explains. “The goal isn’t to lower expectations but to support students in achieving grade-level rigor.”
This approach is critical for the students whose data shows us we’re consistently falling short, year after year and generation after generation. By equipping educators with the mindsets, skills, and tools at the heart of transformative teaching and learning, we can break the predictability of historic achievement patterns. At UnboundEd, we like to say: Justice is found in the details of teaching and learning.® When we attend to the details, we cultivate the true potential of every single student, regardless of where they start.
The goal isn’t to lower expectations but to support students in achieving grade-level rigor.
Transforming Mindsets, Transforming Leadership
The impact of Standards Institute goes beyond classroom instruction — it reshapes how entire school systems think about teaching and learning. “Superintendents have told us their teams came back from Standards Institute transformed,” says Smith. “They returned not just with new tools but with a renewed sense of purpose. They were ready to tackle the work with urgency and clarity.”
The shift in mindset is critical for long-term success. It’s not just about improving individual classroom techniques; it’s also about fostering a culture where all students are held to the same high expectations, no matter their background or where they start.
When education leaders believe in the potential of every student — and understand what it takes to meet their individual needs through grade-level, engaging, affirming, and meaningful instruction — enduring change becomes possible. This is how we address the predictability of student outcomes.
The Next 10 Years and Beyond
In just a decade, UnboundEd has partnered with more than 850 school districts across 45 states, reaching nearly 13.5 million students. And we’re just getting started.
As we look ahead, we’re expanding how professional learning happens — making it more accessible, flexible, and responsive to the real demands of educators’ day-to-day lives. From bite-sized, just-in-time learning modules to tech-enabled tools that reduce administrative burdens, we’re evolving to meet the moment.
“We’re exploring how artificial intelligence might support teachers,” says Smith. “That’s something we’re excited to develop. If AI can help with the ‘administrivia,’ it frees up time for teachers to really focus on their relationships with their students, which is something AI can never replicate.” Smith also thinks AI can potentially help educators make existing lessons more GLEAM-aligned by making them more relevant and meaningful for their students.
“We were stewards of EngageNY,” Smith reflects, “but UnboundEd is building something bigger: a national movement to make rigorous, effective instruction a reality in every single classroom across the country.”
