Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon took the state’s education reform model to a national audience on July 8, when he addressed the Education Commission of the States’ 2026 National Forum on Education Policy in Washington, D.C., presenting a new policy playbook drawn from Wyoming’s own school innovation programs.
Why It Matters
As states across the country search for scalable solutions to workforce shortages and lagging student outcomes, Wyoming’s approach is drawing attention from governors, state education officers, and legislators at the highest levels of policy discussion. Gordon’s platform at the forum gives Wyoming’s model national visibility at a time when education reform debates are intensifying.
Gordon, who chairs the Education Commission of the States — a role he assumed in 2025 — used his position to introduce what he calls the CHANGE Playbook, short for Community Hubs for Addressing Needs for Greater Education. The guide was developed in partnership with the commission and is built on lessons drawn directly from Wyoming’s ongoing education experiments.
What Happened
Speaking before more than 700 attendees at the nonpartisan annual forum, Gordon outlined two Wyoming-specific programs that anchor the playbook’s framework: the RIDE initiative (Reimagining and Innovating the Delivery of Education) and the Wyoming Innovative Partnership, known as WIP.
RIDE, currently operating across roughly 20 pilot schools statewide, allows students to earn academic credit through internships, receive instruction in practical skills like tax filing, and follow more flexible daily schedules. The program aims to make classroom learning more directly connected to real-world demands.
WIP takes a different approach, focusing on aligning higher education offerings with private-sector workforce needs in energy, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing — three industries central to Wyoming’s economy and to broader national labor market gaps.
Gordon used a fly-fishing analogy to describe the iterative nature of education reform, telling attendees that progress requires hands-on effort and patience. “You have to try it. You’ll keep working at it and you’ll start to understand where the water is, you’ll understand what fish are doing … it’ll get better and better,” he said. He added that meaningful change ultimately requires local ownership: “but you gotta build it yourself.”
By the Numbers
- 700+ attendees at the 2026 National Forum on Education Policy, including governors, state school chiefs, lawmakers, and education professionals
- 20 pilot schools currently participating in Wyoming’s RIDE initiative
- 3 industry sectors targeted by the Wyoming Innovative Partnership: energy, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing
- 2 years: the cycle on which the Education Commission of the States selects a new chair
- 2025: the year Gordon was selected to lead the commission
Zoom Out
Wyoming is not alone in pursuing flexible, work-integrated education models, but few states have packaged their efforts into an exportable framework presented at a venue of this scale. Across the country, states are grappling with how to modernize K-12 and post-secondary education to address both declining enrollment trends and persistent skills gaps in critical industries. The Education Commission of the States, as a nonpartisan body with broad interstate reach, provides a channel for successful state-level experiments to influence national policy thinking.
Gordon’s chairmanship gives Wyoming an outsized voice in that conversation relative to its population size, and the CHANGE Playbook is a deliberate attempt to translate the state’s practical experience into guidance other states can adapt.
What’s Next
The CHANGE Playbook is now available for other states to reference as they develop or refine their own education innovation strategies. Wyoming’s RIDE pilot program continues to expand, with outcomes from the current cohort of 20 schools expected to inform future iterations. The Education Commission of the States will select a new chair on its standard two-year cycle, with Gordon’s term running through that window.
For more on Wyoming policy developments, see recent coverage of a federal fee exemption secured for Wyoming airports and an overview of education and policy news from across the state.