It’s easy to find reasons for despair given the stickiness of the status quo in an education system that isn’t working well writ large for any of the students it serves.

But as schools around the United States reopen and students return from their summer breaks, there are reasons for cheer in the news. Two stories featuring high-profile public school districts reinventing schooling have me feeling more optimistic, as the districts seem to be following some of the playbook from my book From Reopen to Reinvent. A third about districts pushing to rethink assessment to support learning that is mastery-based also brought me cheer.