Andrew Calkins

As one of two Co-Directors of Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), Andrew Calkins helps to lead a national effort to fundamentally reimagine and transform K-12 public education in the U.S. NGLC seeks to dramatically lift and transform student outcomes by helping to spur the development of next gen learning: equitable, student-centered, personalized, competency-based, experiential, and tech-enabled, organized around richer, deeper definitions of student success. Since 2010, NGLC’s non-profit grantmaking has invested $100 million in innovations and whole-school models designed by educators incorporating those principles. In recent years, NGLC has focused on Transformation Design (TD) – the art and science of catalyzing equitable, transformational change in K-12 public education. In 2024, CaIkins and NGLC formed an 8-partner alliance to leverage TD principles through human-centered AI, called Collective Shift. Calkins brings four decades of experience in education reform in leadership positions at Scholastic Inc., Recruiting New Teachers, Mass Insight, and the Stupski Foundation. Calkins writes frequently for NGLC and has spoken at numerous education conferences. He earned his B.A. from Harvard and was a Henry Fellow at Pembroke College in the UK. Calkins served for six years as an elected member of the Hamilton-Wenham (MA) Regional School Committee. He lives in Gloucester, MA where he and his wife Peggy have raised three daughters.