COMING SOON - SAVE YOUR SPOT ON THE DROP LIST
Young people are often invited to the room but being invited to speak isn't the same as having a hand in shaping what happens.
Intergenerational co-creation is a different way of working: one where young people and adults share power, bring different kinds of expertise, and create alongside one another.
HOW DO SYSTEMS SUPPORT OR HINDER REINVENTION?
Someone gets a waiver, finds flexible funding, negotiates a partnership, creates a new credential, persuades a board, or simply does something differently and hopes there is enough room in the rules to keep doing it.
That tells us something.
The dominant system is not neutral toward reinvention. Its schedules, funding formulas, accountability structures, staffing models, credentials, assessment systems and policies were built around particular assumptions about where learning happens, what counts as knowledge, who can teach, how learning is demonstrated, and what school is ultimately for.
In 2025, average reading scores for 13-year-olds were statistically unchanged from 1971. The persistence of our outcomes should make us question whether improvement alone is enough.
1. NAEP Long-Term Trend Assessment, 2025. Reading, age 13.
A practical guide to building together
When the Table Gets Bigger is an Intergenerational Co-Creation Playbook from the Reinvention Lab at Teach For America.
Inside, you'll find 7 principles for creating spaces where generations can move beyond participation and toward genuine partnership:
The goal isn't equal speaking time.
It's shared ownership.
Because the future won't be designed by young people alone.
It won't be designed by adults alone.
It will be shaped when generations choose to sit at the same table.