Voting is now open for the SXSW EDU 2027 PanelPicker, and the Southern Education Foundation is asking for your support.
SEF leaders and partners are featured in five proposed sessions that would bring important conversations about education across the South to the SXSW EDU stage. From the connection between education and economic vitality to school segregation, early learning, and outcomes-based contracting, these sessions highlight ideas and approaches that can help shape a stronger future for students and communities.
Community voting is open through August 23. Cast your votes and help us spread the word by sharing these sessions with your networks.
Education and Economic Vitality: Projecting Southern Futures
Current projections such as those from the Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipate increased demand in key industries like health, information, business services, and community and social services, but raise concerns that, post-pandemic, we are not on track to create the workforce we need to fill these roles. This session addresses key projective data in early childhood, K-12, and postsecondary education that show disparities in access and outcomes are shrinking the pool of students who can take on these roles. It recommends practical steps to address these systemic challenges while we still can.
Beyond Busing: School Segregation in the New Era
This session juxtaposes school segregation in the 1950’s and 60’s with its contemporary manifestations, examining the mechanisms through which segregation and systemic inequities affecting students of color and economically disadvantaged students have evolved over time. The conversation will include an analysis of how students are assigned to schools, classrooms, and programs; how school discipline is applied; and how students access academic resources and opportunities. Participants will leave with a concrete process for identifying and addressing school segregation in the new era.
No Deliberate Speed: Confronting P-16 Segregation Today
Despite the Brown II Supreme Court decision’s mandate – 71 years ago – to desegregate “with all deliberate speed,” U.S. K-12 schools, early childhood education programs, and many postsecondary contexts remain highly segregated, by many measures more so now than in the late 60s. On this panel, leaders in the desegregation space will share their perspectives on what desegregation means and looks like today in each of these three areas. They will identify practical steps that can be taken by policymakers, educators, leaders, and others to move this work forward and increase access and opportunity.
Building Shared Early Learning Knowledge for Regional Impact
Communities across the South solve tough early childhood education (ECE) challenges every day, but too often those solutions remain within a single community or organization, forcing others to reinvent approaches at great cost to capacity, often with less success. This panel explores how learning across local, state, and regional partners builds shared knowledge to accelerate learning, expand ECE access, and improve policy implementation. Stories of partnership, policy, and practice from across the South will illustrate how collaboration helps communities build on one another’s successes.
Paying for Proof: How Outcomes Based Contracts Work
District leaders face pressure to prove edtech spending works, but most vendor contracts never define what success looks like. Outcomes based contracting flips that: districts and providers agree upfront on goals, supports, and payment tied to verified student progress—shared accountability, not a transaction. Early results show far better product implementation than industry norms, and new evidence goes further: implemented with integrity, these contracts drive better outcomes for kids. This session unpacks what outcomes based contracting is, isn’t, and a playbook to try it.