WASHINGTON – After three months of active engagement with thousands of prospective applicants nationwide, the 2026 Yass Prize application window has now closed, showcasing an even greater level of participation than the previous year.
Caroline Allen, Chief Program Officer at the Center for Education Reform and Founding Director of The Yass Prize, shared her initial insights about the pool of submissions: “What we’re seeing in this year’s submissions is nothing short of remarkable. The breadth and diversity of applicants – from nearly every state, every sector, and every grade level – reflects just how far this movement has come in the last six years. These are education leaders who are transforming education for millions of students.”
The Yass Prize recognizes and celebrates the nation’s top education innovators – those who are providing Sustainable, Transformational, Outstanding, and Permissionless (STOP) education opportunities for all students. During the past five years, over $60 million has been awarded to more than 225+ awardee organizations, impacting more than 15 million students nationwide.
Throughout the next two months, all 2026 Yass Prize applications will undergo an extensive, data-driven three-tier review process involving hundreds of judges, assessing their alignment with the STOP principles and their potential scale and expansion efforts.
The anticipation builds toward August 12th, when the Yass Prize contenders will be announced at a special livestream event hosted at Forbes on Fifth – home of the Yass Prize media partner, Forbes. Contenders will then go on to compete in the Yass Prize Miami Accelerator in September, culminating in the pitch competition to vie for the $1 million prize.
The $1 million Yass Prize winner will be announced at this year’s awards ceremony at the October 6th Power of Innovation Summit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, thus marking another milestone in the quest for educational excellence and transformation for all students.
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