We Are Building
What's Next
CoLAB Education is a nonprofit organization designing next-ready schools and educational ecosystems — rooted in community, powered by creativity, and built for the future our students are inheriting.
Born From
Lived Experience
CoLAB was not built from a theory. It was built from decades of work inside schools — leading them, designing them, turning them around, and watching what happens when design, culture, and community finally align.
The name says it all: Communities Leading, Activating, and Building. CoLAB is not a program delivered to communities. It is a practice built with them — where students, families, educators, and neighbors are not recipients of education, but its co-architects.
We believe the future of education is not a product to be purchased. It is a living system to be grown — one school, one community, one generation at a time.
Our Founders
CoLAB was founded by Dr. Adrian Manuel and built alongside co-founder Bill Clarke — two educators whose careers, taken together, span nearly every layer of American public education.
"Every young person carries limitless potential. Our job is to build the schools and ecosystems that make that potential visible — and unstoppable."
Dr. Manuel began as a middle school teacher in New York City public schools. He was the first in his family to graduate from college, and that experience — of what education can unlock, and what it can still fail to deliver — has shaped everything he has done since.
He went on to lead schools across the district and charter sectors, eventually becoming known as a turnaround leader. Over more than two decades, he guided multiple schools from failure to sustained success, consistently building out programs in social-emotional learning, technology, STEM, and college and career readiness. CoLAB is the culmination of that learning.
- B.A. in History — New York University
- M.S. in Secondary Education — Lehman College
- M.S.Ed. in Educational Administration — Baruch College
- Ed.D. in Educational and Organizational Leadership — University of Pennsylvania
Bill Clarke built his career on the other side of the same conviction. He has spent over two decades in the charter sector — first as a school and instructional leader, then as a charter authorizer at the state level in Rhode Island and New York, and eventually as a national consultant who has helped launch and redesign dozens of schools across the country.
His work has always centered on one question: what does it actually take to make a school work? That expertise — practical, evidence-based, and hard-won — is what he brings to CoLAB as the architect of how our frameworks come to life.
- B.A. in English and Spanish — University of Texas at Austin
- M.A. in Education — University of Mississippi
- M.Ed. in Educational Leadership — Providence College
Together, they bring district and charter experience, turnaround leadership, school design, state policy, and national implementation. But what drives them now is something more personal. Both are parents — Bill has children in college and in high school; Adrian has a second grader and an eleventh grader.
They watch what is happening in classrooms, they see the pace of change in the world, and they keep asking the same question: are we building schools that are actually ready for the moment our children are inheriting?
Education 4.0 is not an abstract concept to them. It is a generational responsibility — and CoLAB is their answer to it.
Why We Exist
CoLAB Education's mission is to design and support next-ready schools and educational ecosystems that develop the full intellectual, creative, social, and purposeful potential of every student — with a particular commitment to communities that have been underserved by traditional educational models.
What We're Building Toward
A world where every young person — regardless of background or circumstance — has access to an extraordinary education that prepares them for the complexity, creativity, and purpose-driven leadership the future demands. A network of schools and communities that are models for what education can become.
Not Another School.
A New Architecture.
Learning Must Be Relevant
Education disconnected from students' lives and futures is not education — it is compliance. CoLAB builds schools where learning is alive, purposeful, and real.
Community Is Part of the Curriculum
The community is not a backdrop to learning — it is a resource, a partner, and a context. CoLAB schools are embedded in and accountable to the communities they serve.
AI Is a Partner, Not a Threat
We embrace AI as a co-intelligence — a tool that, when used thoughtfully, amplifies human creativity, accelerates inquiry, and personalizes learning.
Equity Is Non-Negotiable
Every student — regardless of background, zip code, or circumstance — deserves access to extraordinary learning. CoLAB's model is designed to deliver on that promise.
Whole-Human Development
Academic achievement is one dimension of human flourishing. CoLAB develops students intellectually, creatively, socially, and purposefully — as complete human beings.
Generative Practice
Great teaching creates conditions for thinking, making, questioning, and growing. CoLAB supports educators in developing the craft of generative practice.