Education, Research & Public Sector

London – September 29, 2026 -- Pearson (FTSE: PSON.L) has agreed to acquire Workera, an AI-native skills intelligence platform used by enterprises including ServiceNow, Accenture and the United States Space Force to verify workforce capability.

Pearson targets enterprise skills verification gap as AI reshapes workforce needs

Workera combines agentic AI, psychometrics and adaptive assessment to measure employee proficiency through role-specific scenarios and simulations, rather than relying on self-reported skills data. The platform gives business leaders a live baseline of workforce capability, including AI fluency, and routes employees to targeted development that closes specific skill gaps. It also verifies whether skills improved post-training, offering measurable ROI on learning investments, and informs hiring, internal mobility and workforce planning decisions.

New York – – September 28, 2026 -- Florida Tutoring Advantage has selected Littera Education to manage the statewide program's data layer for the 2026-2027 school year, expanding on Littera's role after the 2025-2026 launch.

Littera moves from one of 25 providers to statewide data manager

Littera was one of 25 tutoring service and support providers in the program's launch year. For the upcoming school year, Florida Tutoring Advantage has now chosen Littera specifically to build and operate the data infrastructure aggregating results across more than 15 different tutoring providers statewide.

Washington – September 28, 2026 -- Fifty-two middle school finalists from all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and American Samoa will compete for a $100,000 prize at the third annual National Civics Bee Championship, set for Wednesday, October 14 at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Championship makes broadcast debut on C-SPAN

For the first time, the event will be televised and live-streamed on C-SPAN and C-SPAN.org, as well as YouTube, expanding the competition's reach to a nationwide audience. The show will be hosted by Emmy-nominated actor Jerry O'Connell and produced under executive producer Hilary Crow, with Steven Raff and Caitlin Thomas as co-executive producers.

Irving, Texas – – September 28, 2026 -- Just Right Reader has launched an online informational hub to help school district leaders navigate the Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) grant program, consolidating state funding requirements, allowable uses, and application guidance into a single resource.

CLSD grants fund literacy programs from birth through Grade 12

The federal CLSD program allows districts to develop evidence-based literacy initiatives targeting underserved student populations, requiring investment in activities aligned with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

Hub consolidates state-specific requirements and deadlines

District leaders can access links and resources to identify CLSD opportunities, requirements, and timelines specific to their state, alongside an overview of evidence requirements shaping funding decisions.

Bentonville, Ark. – September 28, 2026 -- Heartland Forward and rootEd Alliance are expanding a rural college-and-career advising program into Oklahoma, with plans to reach 10 high schools across 10 rural districts and more than 1,000 students by the 2027-28 school year.

rootEd advisors have already served over 100,000 rural students nationwide

The nonprofit program places trained advisors directly in rural high schools to work one-on-one with students on post-graduation plans, covering college, career credentials, apprenticeships, military service or direct workforce entry. rootEd currently operates in Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, Alaska, Illinois and Idaho, with Oklahoma added this academic year.

Shanghai – September 28, 2026 -- Mikala Sposito, a 21-year-old welding student from Washtenaw Community College, won a bronze medal at the 48th WorldSkills Competition, becoming the first woman to represent the United States in the Welding skill category.

Nine-member U.S. delegation competes against global field of 1,400

The 2026 WorldSkills USA team, comprising nine SkillsUSA state champions, competed Sept. 22-27 in Shanghai against skilled professionals from 73 countries and regions across 64 skill categories, including seven new emerging occupations.

Two U.S. competitors secure Medal for Excellence with 700+ point scores

Elizabeth Brown, 22, of Missouri, earned the Medal for Excellence in Cooking, ranking among 19 of 45 competitors globally to score above 700 points on the WorldSkills scale. Brown's preparation was backed by Unilever, ZWILLING and Smithfield Foods.

Phoenix – September 26, 2026 -- A peer-reviewed study from University of Phoenix examining AI-supported storytelling in environmental science education has been named an Editor's Choice paper by the journal Glacies.

Study links AI-generated imagery to measurable gains in student engagement

The paper, "Harnessing AI, Virtual Landscapes, and Anthropomorphic Imaginaries to Enhance Environmental Science Education at Jökulsárlón Proglacial Lagoon, Iceland," was published in February 2026. It reports that 87.1% of surveyed students enjoyed the anthropomorphic narratives used in the course, while 82.0% agreed the approach reinforced systems thinking.

New York – September 25, 2026 -- The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) has opened registration for a new public speaker program, "FIT Future//Forward Conversations," pairing sitting executives from Kering, Givaudan and Spin Master with President Jason Schupbach and industry journalists in a bid to position the SUNY-affiliated college as a hub for creative-industry dialogue.

The initiative splits into two tracks: a Presidential Speaker Series featuring CEOs and presidents in one-on-one conversation with Schupbach, and an Innovation Speaker Series pairing journalists with designers and creators. Both are free, open to the public, and will be livestreamed with recordings archived for remote audiences.

Tokyo – September 25, 2026 -- LEIFRAS Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: LFS) has secured new contracts with five Japanese municipalities to manage the regional transition of school club activities, expanding its footprint in an estimated JPY500 billion domestic market as the country's teacher work-style reform enters what officials call the "Reform Implementation Period" in fiscal 2026.

North Chicago, Illinois – September 24, 2026 -- Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (RFU) neuroscientist Nicole Ferrara, PhD, has secured a five-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how social disruptions, including COVID-19 lockdowns, alter brain development in adolescents.

NIH funds five-year study on amygdala development and social behavior

The project, titled "Social Experience Guides BMA Mediated Social Development," will examine how the basomedial amygdala (BMA) responds to restricted or inconsistent social contact during adolescence and young adulthood. Dr. Ferrara's preliminary data indicate the BMA functions differently during teen and young adult years compared with other brain regions, making it potentially more vulnerable to social disruption.