We partner with our clients – educators, district and state leaders, grantmakers, nonprofit leaders and public education advocates – to help them improve public education opportunities for all students. Our services vary and are tailored to each client’s needs. Explore our partnerships (described below) to learn more about the type of work we can do to support you.
Our Clients
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Achieve, Inc.
Supported more than 20 projects and initiatives since 2006. Advised and counseled state policymakers in the American Diploma Project Network. Created original content for policy design, implementation and sustainability of college and career readiness reforms, including high school coursetaking, data systems, assessments and accountability systems. Wrote Measures That Matter for Achieve and the Education Trust. Researched and wrote policy briefs on career/technical education in Massachusetts and Ohio. Supported organizational strategic planning. Helped create online toolkits for business leaders and state reform sustainability reports. Advised on Next Generation Science Standards advocacy and adoption.
View Client Website >Advance Illinois
Advised on all aspects of start-up of new statewide advocacy organization, including policy agenda for new organization. Served on national policy steering committee and co-developed a comprehensive policy agenda that resulted in several new state laws.
View Client Website >AFT Innovation Fund
Developed the inaugural business plan (2008) for the Innovation Fund that detailed its management plan, theory of change, grantmaking priorities, measurable outcomes and budgets. Created by the American Federation of Teachers in 2009, the fund was designed to support and share successful union-led and collaborative reform efforts in public systems across the United States.
View Client Website >America Achieves
Supported America Achieves with strategy to conceptualize and launch a new learning network for schools and districts participating in the “OECD Test for Schools” (a school-level version of the international PISA assessment, which provides schools and districts with rich data about students’ readiness for college and career, as well as attitudes towards learning).
View Client Website >Aspen Institute
Facilitated the Aspen Education & Society program and a group of leading thinkers on school-level instructional practices to develop groundbreaking “Implementation of the Common Core State Standards: A Transition Guide for School-level Leaders.” Conducted business planning for www.corereadyschools.org, the online tool version of the Transition Guide.
View Client Website >AVID
Analyzed and identified college and career readiness policies, teacher professional development opportunities, school turnaround strategies and state-level political realities in Ohio and Tennessee to enable rapid and strategic program expansion in those states. Planned national convening with focus on increasing African-American male youth achievement and attainment.
View Client Website >Baltimore City Public Schools
Over the course of two years, provided research, facilitation and technical assistance on the design of Baltimore City Public Schools’ new educator evaluation system. Facilitated weekly sessions of the district’s leadership to consider options and make decisions about various features of the evaluation system to ensure it met the requirements of Maryland state law as well as the district’s overall vision for supporting educators. Also facilitated a group of teachers and principals who provided feedback on elements of the system. Other projects included developing the district’s Race to the Top Scope of Work to access more than $50 million in funds, and planning and facilitating two of the CEO’s Cabinet retreats.
View Client Website >Bartlesville School District, Oklahoma
Advised superintendent and senior staff and supported comprehensive new strategic plan for mid-size exurban school district.
View Client Website >Battelle & STEMx
Designed STEMx – a network for states, by states – by developing the organization’s strategic plan, governance structure, state engagement protocol and partner expectations.
View Client Website >Beyond Differences
Beyond Differences empowers students to end social isolation in middle school through online and on campus programs. We want to ensure that every child in middle school feels accepted, included and valued by their peers no matter what their differences.
View Client Website >Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Since 2006, conducted numerous research, due diligence, grantmaking effectiveness and convening projects for the College Ready, Postsecondary and Pacific Northwest teams. With the College Ready team, conducted due diligence and investment analysis on 20 states and the southern states, facilitated forums of state policymakers to explore resource reallocation, conducted a comprehensive landscape scan of the local, state and national landscape of assessment for learning and developed a series of policy briefs about effective implementation of evaluation, feedback and support systems for teachers. With the Postsecondary team, facilitated dialogue among key postsecondary grantees to identify areas for collaboration and strategic planning and facilitated the development of a joint statement by the foundation’s national grantees about transforming remediation and scalable practices to help all students succeed in their first academic year of college. Planned a major convening of 20+ district and state teams called Teaching is Learning. Also planned and facilitated the advocacy consultants network for multiple years, a convening of early learning and K12 Washington grantees, multiple teacher voice grantee convenings and Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teaching 2.
View Client Website >Boston Plan for Excellence
Conducted a communications audit for this Boston-based non-profit and assisted with early-stage planning for the organization’s relaunch and messaging.
View Client Website >Broad Foundation
Helped the Broad Center facilitate meetings of leading states on each’s most pressing teacher evaluation implementation issues and to identify possible collaboration on teacher preparation reforms.
View Client Website >California Education Policy Fund
Conducted and provided recommendations as part of annual external evaluations (2014 and 2015) that examined evolving California education policy conditions, the different ways Fund grantees worked to inform and influence the policy environment, and how well the Fund was supporting grantee organizations.
View Client Website >Chalkboard Project
Provided policy research and counsel on a range of projects over the years to help Oregon’s Chalkboard Project strengthen its work improving teacher effectiveness and advance its goal of making Oregon’s K-12 public schools among the best in the country. Projects have included investigating and recommending course corrections to improve its CLASS Project on new teacher compensation and support systems and identifying best practices in teacher education programs to inform the design of its TeachOregon effort.
View Client Website >Change the Equation
Designed and facilitated annual convening of business and education leaders dedicated to accelerating STEM talent.
View Client Website >Chattanooga Public Education Foundation
Led the development of a five-year strategic plan for the Chattanooga Public Education Foundation to deepen its impact in public education in Hamilton County, TN. Project included an extensive landscape analysis, deep board member and staff engagement and a series of facilitated meetings that culminated in a comprehensive plan for action.
View Client Website >Cleveland Foundation and Cleveland Metropolitan School District
Developed recommendations for Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s (CMSD) CEO and cabinet to create a portfolio school district and build district capacity to support and embrace new schools. Developed a comprehensive report on school turnaround, including recommendations for how to frame, lead and engage a sustained communications and outreach effort to provide crucial support for these difficult reforms over time. Supported new CMSD CEO to design a comprehensive strategy and application for the Race to the Top-District competition.
View Client Website >Colorado Department of Education
Helped state leaders decide on and articulate the strategy and priorities included in its (successful) proposal for round 3 of Race to the Top funding.
View Client Website >Colorado Education Initiative
Researched and produced a policy brief about effective technical assistance and capacity building.
View Client Website >Colorado STEM Initiative
Analyzed state STEM, career technical education and workforce policies, practices and partnerships and identified recommendations for spreading high-quality STEM education opportunities across the state of Colorado.
View Client Website >Common Core Funders Working Group
Established the Common Core Funders Working Group as a three-year effort (2012-2015) to inform and support learning in the sector as schools began implementing higher standards and new assessments. Provided research and staff support to help the group pool knowledge and create broader understanding about system needs, and prioritized leverage points for change, for both national and local funders.
View Client Website >Complete College America
Provided recommendations and support for organizational start-up, facilitated marquee events and coached multiple state policymaker and campus academies to increase campus completion rates.
View Client Website >Connecticut State Department of Education
Collaborated with the Connecticut State Department of Education to help the state design a new teacher evaluation system, produce a teacher evaluation framework that supports and retains high performing teachers and develop a statewide model evaluation system. To help develop the evaluation system, Education First led four different stakeholder groups consisting of teachers, union representatives, administrators, management associations and reform organizations. After the initial phase of work, Education First assisted the department in successfully building out the training and support components of its teacher and principal evaluation systems in coordination with New Leaders.
View Client Website >Core to College Network
Served as national project director for the Core to College sponsored project. Ten states pursued K-12/higher education alignment around the Common Core State Standards, aligned assessments and a variety of other collaborative initiatives including college readiness courses, curriculum alignment and teacher preparation. Provided convening support, coaching, technical assistance and knowledge management for the project. The Core to College Network was funded by the Lumina, Gates and Hewlett Foundations and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
View Client Website >Council of Chief State School Officers
Coached and supported states enrolled in the Implementing College and Career Ready Standards network (ICCS), and served as co-lead of the communications workgroup. Developed a white paper on teacher engagement and accompanying workbook to help state leaders identify how they can better engage their educators. Partnered with CCSSO to plan and host two major convenings focused on communication skill-building.
View Client Website >Data Quality Campaign
Developed a three-year strategic plan in 2010 and again in 2014 that clarifies the organization’s roles, establishes short-term and long-term outcome goals, updates the organization’s theory of action, and implements an effective governance and staffing structure. Developed a set of communications tools (including a glossary, key messages, conversation guides and value proposition statements) to enable state leaders to talk the same language and to communicate more broadly about the effective use of high quality data.
View Client Website >Delaware Department of Education
Provided research, financial modeling and stakeholder engagement on designing the Delaware Talent Cooperative aimed at rewarding the state’s most highly effective teachers and encouraging them to work in high-needs schools. In addition to benchmarking similar projects around the country, facilitated a design committee and generated ideas for professional development for Cooperative teachers. Other projects include strategic planning for the Teacher and Effectiveness Leader Unit to ensure that it worked strategically to improve the state’s performance evaluation system and help teachers and district and school leaders understand all elements of the system.
View Client Website >Denver Public Schools
Advised district and union personnel, provided planning and facilitation services and produced major reports for three major projects in Denver Public Schools. Advised the district on academic strategy related to the roll-out of new state standards, led a design team of teachers and administrators that developed a new compensation model (ProComp 3.0) informed by a new evaluation system and career pathways, and planned and facilitated an effort by 30 of the district’s strongest teachers to create recommendations to increase teacher retention in the district’s highest poverty schools.
View Client Website >Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
Prepared a series of landscape scans for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation focused on identifying significant trends and innovations, research, major public funding sources and/or significant philanthropic initatives, with a focus on targeted aspects of K-12 education including teacher effectiveness, STEM, charter schools, standards and extended learning time/out of school time.
View Client Website >EdReports
Planned, launched and incubated this new national nonprofit to provide Consumer Reports-like reviews of yearlong curriculum materials’ quality and alignment to Common Core to inform district purchasing and selection of materials. Facilitated the funders (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Helmsley Trust and Hewlett Foundation) and founding board chair Dr. Maria Klawe to recruit the board of directors, hire the founding executive director and develop a business plan. Conducted national listening and learning tour to gain insight and feedback for the organization’s proposed programs. Assisted new executive director with organization start-up issues (such as strategic hiring and website development) and with the educator-led reviews of instructional materials beginning in K-8 mathematics.
View Client Website >EdSource
Advised EdSource executive director and staff on organizational development and middle grades policy.
View Client Website >Educate Texas
Provided research, facilitation and report-writing support for Texas Teaching Commission members to develop a statewide policy agenda for the next generation teaching and learning. In a separate project, developed a statewide STEM expansion strategic plan bringing together P-20 education and workforce leaders.
View Client Website >Education Commission of the States
Education First worked with the Education Commission of the States to develop a Blueprint for College Readiness and to facilitate engagement around the development of the Blueprint.
View Client Website >Education Strategy Group
Researched and designed cutting-edge state education agency and leadership program innovations and supports for national funder.
View Client Website >Educators 4 Excellence
Developed E4E’s first-ever internal staff performance evaluation system by engaging staff stakeholders and incorporating emerging promising practices focused on formative feedback and support.
View Client Website >Educators Rising
Facilitated a strategic planning process for Educators Rising, a new initiative consolidating multiple organizations housed under Phi Delta Kappa International to cultivate a sustainable pipeline – from high school through early career – of highly skilled, thoroughly prepared educators. Summarized current needs of the field, creating a theory of action, identified potential partners and funders, built a sustainable budget and staffing model, developed a full strategic plan to be shared with potential partners and funders, including a proposed expansion plan over the next three years. Also conducted an extensive landscape analysis on current teacher preparation practice to identify states and districts where the organization could develop pilot programs.
View Client Website >EdVestors
Conducted a feasibility study for this Boston-based nonprofit interested in assessing its organizational options for partnering more deeply with low-performing schools.
View Client Website >Ensemble Learning
Helped coalition of five high-performing charter school management organizations in Los Angeles, who are working to co-design new teacher and leader evaluation, support and compensation systems, successfully apply for a federal Teacher Incentive Fund to underwrite their efforts.
View Client Website >ESC 20/Texas Education Agency
Supported implementation of Opportunity Culture teacher leader models in multiple independent school districts and the state policy environment to help partner schools thrive.
View Client Website >Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
Provided strategic planning support to a collaborative network of Kansas City funders seeking to align their priorities in support of improved outcomes for the city’s youth. This effort included a landscape scan of promising programs and policies, stakeholder engagement, facilitation and the development of strategic recommendations for collaboration.
View Client Website >Excellent Schools Now Coalition
Supported the steering committee of this 40+ organization coalition to develop a comprehensive policy agenda across early learning, K12 and postsecondary education for Washington state.
View Client Website >Ford Foundation
Convened a network of human capital funders to learn more about successful teacher effectiveness reforms and possible investments in teacher voice organizations.
View Client Website >Grantmakers for Education
Produced a summary report from the organization’s 2011 Education Grantmakers Institute at Harvard University; the report synthesizes high-level takeaways about grantmaking strategies for supporting successful implemention of new public policies.
View Client Website >GreatSchools
Conducted research to identify areas of student progress reporting ripe for innovation and recommended several possible domains of innovation to inform a new approach to reporting student progress.
View Client Website >Hawai’i Department of Education
Supported the Hawai’i Department of Education with research and analysis, facilitating stakeholders, bargaining with the Hawai’i State Teachers Association, conceptualizing and writing its successful Race to the Top application. Provided initial implementation coaching and support as funds were awarded. Also coached Hawai’i leaders in the American Diploma Project Network.
View Client Website >Hawai’i P-20 Partnerships for Education
Developed a strategic plan to identify the council’s next phase of work, facilitated meetings, collected stakeholder input, conducted research and recommended new strategies and activities.
View Client Website >Heising-Simons Foundation
A long-time funder of efforts in California to improve early learning outcomes, the Heising-Simons Foundation asked Education First in 2019 to prepare a series of research projects that map challenges and opportunities for improving early math outcomes for students aged 3–8, examine ways of better engaging parents as partners, and identify and describe promising initiatives to strengthen math foundations for young learners.
View Client Website >Helios Education Foundation
Refreshed the foundation’s postsecondary completion strategic plan to clarify the portfolio’s theory of action, short-term and long-term outcome goals and priority strategies to increase the number of underserved students attaining a postsecondary degree or certification.
View Client Website >Helmsley Trust
Facilitated the development of this national foundation’s five-year strategic plan for both K-12 and postsecondary education.
View Client Website >High Quality Assessment Project
Managed grants and technical assistance of a national, multi-million dollar project designed to help policymakers, education leaders and advocates support the transition to higher-quality state assessments (such as PARCC and Smarter Balanced). Five foundations invested in HQAP (Gates, Hemsley, Hewlett, Lumina and Schusterman) from 2013-2016, which Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors administered. Education First directed resources, research and counsel that HQAP provided leaders in more than 15 states.
Highline Public Schools
Helped mid-size urban school district just south of Seattle to update its elementary school mathematics strategy. Researched effective practices in math curriculum and evidence-based learning. Conducted focus groups of educators and parents at every elementary school. Advised superintendent, school board and senior staff on selection of new math curriculum and textbook.
View Client Website >Hill Center
Facilitated the development of this education non-profit’s strategic vision and growth plans to extend its impact to reach more struggling K-12 learners.
View Client Website >Hope Street Group
Facilitated new strategic plan, including landscape scan, new theory of action and detailed action plan, for the education program in 2011. Also researched and wrote elements of the teacher voice organization’s educator evaluation “Playbook.”
View Client Website >Institute for Higher Education Policy
Helped IHEP plan for a coordinated postsecondary data coalition by facilitating meetings of prospective partners and guiding the organization through a strategic planning process, including working with partners to develop a twelve-month Working Group plan and agenda. In the months since, PostSec Data has grown in partnerships, launched a new website and released major policy statements.
View Client Website >Internationals Network For Public Schools
Mapped a growth plan for this network of 12 innovative high schools that serve recently arrived immigrants by helping organizational leaders identify strategies for strengthening existing schools and opening more schools, disseminating its model to other cities around the country, and advocating for policies to transform English language learner services and supports.
View Client Website >Jessie V. Stone Foundation
Designed and facilitated the foundation’s annual convening of education grantee organizations (2010-2014), with a particular focus on helping leaders grapple with common challenges of organization growth, communications and measuring impact. To spur conversation and reflection among attendees, produced case studies and led conversations that examined the choices grantee organizations made as they grew. The foundation supports grantees in the San Francisco Bay area, Chicago, Boston and New York City, most of whom work in partnership with school districts to strengthen teaching.
View Client Website >KnowledgeWorks
Provided facilitation and strategic planning support to the leadership team of KnowledgeWorks through a series of targeted leadership team meetings.
View Client Website >Louisiana Department of Education
Helped Louisiana Department of Education in 2012 to develop its policy guidance and support for districts on Student Learning Targets as part of COMPASS, the state’s educator evaluation system.
View Client Website >Lumina Foundation
Provided research and grantmaking effectiveness support to the Foundation on a number of topics including accelerating change in higher education, identifying evidence-based practices and grantmaking options to increase K12 and postsecondary attainment of out-of-school youth, and identifying exemplary FAFSA completion initiatives. Designed and hosted the “Countdown to 2015: Developmental Strategies to Advance Readiness in the Common Core Era” conference in April 2014 attended by teams from 10 states committed to taking on improved readiness initiatives and developmental education reform.
View Client Website >Maryland Business Roundtable for Education
Produced research and strategic recommendations related to content development, governance, funding and communications to support an integrated online portal (“STEMNet”) to improve STEM teaching and learning in Maryland.
View Client Website >Maryland State Department of Education
Facilitated senior state leadership, co-wrote and edited the state’s successful Race to the Top application.
View Client Website >Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education
Researched and wrote a progress report on the first year of Race to the Top implementation in Massachusetts.
View Client Website >Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation
Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation believes improving education requires innovative approaches, collaboration between partners and the communities they serve, and a sustained commitment over time. We support like-minded institutions committed to elevating the educational experience of Rochester’s students, leading to prosperity across our entire community.
Metro Nashville Public Schools
Developed a comprehensive program and policy agenda called ASSET: Achieving Student Success through Effective Teaching. Supported research, stakeholder engagement, design and implementation of its teacher and teacher leader professional learning academy.
View Client Website >Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
Designed and led a three-district research study to deepen understanding of teacher formative assessment practices. Research methods included multiple classroom observations, teacher surveys and interviews with district and school administrators. The final report will inform future grantmaking by the Foundation.
View Client Website >Nashville Collaborative Compact
Developed a high quality performance framework to measure the academic, financial and operational progress of charter and traditional schools in metro Nashville. Drafted a research report and recommendations on performance frameworks, reached out to stakeholders to build support and buy-in for the framework, tested the framework with select schools’ data and developed a communications and rollout plan for the framework.
View Client Website >New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
Researched and analyzed the state’s STEM education pipeline and facilitated multi-sector leaders in developing a STEM policy agenda for New Hampshire.
View Client Website >New Hampshire Department of Education
Assisted the New Hampshire Department of Education with conceptualizing and writing its ESEA flexibility waiver application to the US Department of Education.
View Client Website >New Jersey Department of Education
In an effort to more strategically recruit and select high-quality school leaders in the state’s Focus and Priority schools, we partnered with the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to assess their hiring needs and identify key turnaround school leader competencies. We also conducted a national landscape analysis of promising practices in turnaround school leader recruitment/selection and made a set of recommendations for the launch of similar initiatives in New Jersey.
New York City Department of Education
Supported the development of the monitoring and evaluation strategy of the Teacher Incentive Fund teacher career pathways pilot in 80 schools, which included defining the goals, theory of action and measures of success, benchmarking other districts’ teacher career pathways models, determining the cycle of evaluation activities (e.g., surveys, focus groups etc.) and supporting survey development and dashboard report development.
View Client Website >NoVo Foundation
Managed the foundation’s investment in 12 districts to increase capacity to promote social emotional learning for all students; provide coaching and technical assistance to district leaders. Designed and managed a learning and technical assistance network for SEL program providers, hosting in-person and virtual convenings to address plans for scaling programs.
View Client Website >Oak Foundation
Led a strategic planning process with the Oak Foundation’s education team to review and refine its strategic framework for grantmaking. This process included designing and leading a series of learning meetings for Oak staff and a Board Trustee to gather data and insights to inform the strategy and the design of a new strategic plan and a set of tools for monitoring, communicating and learning from grantees.
View Client Website >Ohio Board of Regents
Supported the agency’s Productivity Initiatives Working Group and helped develop a proposal to the Lumina Foundation for funding to support its productivity improvement activities.
View Client Website >Ohio Business Roundtable
Supported Ohio Business Roundtable with research and policy support on a variety of education issues in Ohio.
View Client Website >Ohio College Access Network
Provided strategic analysis, counsel and facilitation services to help strengthen the organization’s network functionality, member relations and state-level advocacy efforts.
View Client Website >Ohio Department of Education
Supported the Ohio Department of Education with conceptualizing and writing its successful application to the federal government for a $71 million, five-year Charter School Program grant. Education First has also provided strategic capacity support to the Department to develop its successful Race to the Top application and helping with the implementation of a variety of initiatives.
View Client Website >Ohio ESC Association
When the Ohio Educational Service Centers Association wanted to identify ways for Ohio’s regional entities to play a bigger role in key education reforms and also improve funding quantity and distribution, they turned to Education First. We helped the association identify critical areas where ESCs could add value to reform implementation. ESCs would benefit from additional resources to support districts facing significant challenges in implementing reforms, and the state would receive cost-effective services from organizations with high credibility and a track record of success. The recommendations developed in this process were used to support the Association’s budget requests from the state.
Oregon Community College Association
Supported Oregon’s efforts to transform developmental education at its 17 community colleges by providing research, facilitation, policy analysis and coaching with the Oregon Community College Association, Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development and all 17 colleges to develop and implement recommendations to decrease attrition and time to completion.
View Client Website >Partnership for Learning
Advised executive director, provided extra capacity, developed legislative agendas, wrote policy briefs and website content, and facilitated the development of the organization’s strategic plan.
View Client Website >Philanthropy Ohio
Researched and authored “Preparing Students for Success in Life,” a comprehensive set of recommendations that cut across the state’s P-20 education continuum and that seek to position all students for success.
View Client Website >PIE Network
Conducted research and interviews with field leaders and developed a 2011 report with insights about the role education advocates play as external champions for reform. The report identified six winning strategies education advocates have perfected and routinely performed to advance policy changes. Nearly 50 state and national education advocacy groups participate in the PIE Network.
View Client Website >Project LIFT
Partnered with Project LIFT, a public/private partnership operating as one of five learning communities in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System, to develop its strategic plan. Focused on improving academic outcomes in nine Charlotte public schools, the plan lays out the four pillars of this innovation zone: time, talent, technology and community and parent engagement.
View Client Website >Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture
Provided implementation support to Public Impact on the launch of its Opportunity Culture effort in Charlotte and Nashville. Since the program’s inception, have helped expand the effort to Syracuse and the state of Texas.
View Client Website >Raikes Foundation
Examined national trends in professional development (PD) and considered opportunities for Raikes to partner with leading PD organizations to bring a focus on student agency into existing models of teacher support and development.
View Client Website >Raise Your Hand Texas
Researched, crafted and engaged leadership in developing a teacher data system policy report and legislative recommendations.
View Client Website >Salem Public Schools
Provided ongoing strategic counsel and guidance to urban turnaround district with a focus on planning, engagement and communication. Led development of winning School Improvement Grant application, oversaw community engagement effort throughout turnaround planning, and managed the Middle School Success Initiative, a community-wide effort to develop recommendations to improve the city’s system of middle grades education.
View Client Website >Seattle Public Schools
Supported the development of district-wide college-ready academic standards, curriculum and high school graduation requirements in English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies and world languages. Provided extensive professional development to teacher leaders from all high schools.
View Client Website >SEED Foundation
Prepared analysis to support the expansion of the SEED Foundation’s college preparatory boarding school model for under-served students in Cincinnati, prepared grant application for federal funding opportunities and conducted an analysis on the potential return on investment of the program.
View Client Website >Southern Regional Education Board
Supported SREB to complete a multi-year study of how states are implementing state college and career readiness standards with data collection, stakeholder interviews and data analysis. The benchmarking report, “State Implementation of College-and Career-Readiness Standards, Aligned Assessments and Related Reforms,” includes individual state reports and a cross-state findings report that describes trends across and within states.
View Client Website >Stand for Children
Supported a panel of exemplary educators to design policy recommendations for Washington state in the areas of early learning, longitudinal data systems and effective teaching. Produced a multi-year policy agenda for the organization. Supported advocacy campaign planning for Common Core.
View Client Website >State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE)
Supported Tennessee SCORE leaders and other state leaders in launching initial implementation of high priority education reform efforts.
View Client Website >State of Tennessee
Partnered with Tennessee state leaders to develop Tennessee’s K12 education reform strategy through the American Diploma Project Network’s College and Career Ready Policy Institute and for the state’s successful $501 million Race to the Top application. Supported policy design and program implementation for academic standards and assessments, teacher evaluation, the Achievement School District and STEM schools and networks.
View Client Website >Syracuse City School District
Partnered with Syracuse City Schools central office and school staff to redesign eight schools to better extend the reach of excellent teaching through the Opportunity Culture model. That work extended to more schools through our support of a three-year turnaround school leaders initiative aimed at recruiting and training stronger leadership teams in 12 hard-to-staff schools. Worked with the district to redesign its assessment strategy to ensure a clear, coherent and aligned system of high-quality assessments. Supported the district’s decisionmaking around its redesign of its teacher evaluation system.
View Client Website >Teach Plus
Supported Teach Plus with a pre-strategic planning project to develop criteria to guide senior staff’s decisionmaking about program expansion.
View Client Website >Tennessee Business Roundtable
Facilitated Tennessee colleges and universities in team-based academies to design and implement developmental education improvements and other evidence-based practices to improve college completion.
View Client Website >The Strategic Data Project
Conducted a communications audit for this Harvard University program, and provided recommendations for improvements to communications strategy and capacity.
View Client Website >The Washington State Board of Education
Wrote a report on state approaches to high school assessment and best practices nationwide.
View Client Website >Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Supported Thomas B. Fordham Institute to develop the strategic plan that launched the PIE Network as a national learning network for third-party education advocacy organizations. Published research on Common Core early adopter districts and a policy paper on deregulation for Ohio legislators.
View Client Website >Understanding Language at Stanford University
Developed a three-year strategic plan to guide Understanding Language, including mission statement, logic model, expected outcomes, priority activities and staffing implications. Understanding Language is working to increase college, career and community readiness for all students and especially English language learners, and its strategic plan identified the best opportunities for disseminating its knowledge to teachers around the country.
View Client Website >Univision Communications
Provided ongoing research, communications content development and strategy support to Univision Contigo’s efforts to increase college readiness and completion for Hispanic students.
View Client Website >US Department of Education
Planned and facilitated a national meeting of education leaders, who in January 2015 gathered to develop plans to address the lack of diversity in their ranks.
View Client Website >US Department of Education – Race to the Top
Through the Reform Support Network created by the U.S. Department of Education and managed by ICF International, between 2011 and 2015 Education First led content development for and delivery of technical assistance to all 19 Race to the Top states in the areas of teacher and leader effectiveness, college- and career-ready standards, state education agency capacity-building and communications and stakeholder engagement.
View Client Website >Washington STEM
Supported all start-up activities to launch Washington STEM, a statewide, business-led STEM initiative in Washington state. Work included strategic and program planning, facilitation among the start-up funders and business leaders, and organizational development. Created communications and network development materials, and executed program support through 2013. Identified a detailed $45million budget request with aligned policy and program priorities for the State of Washington to invest in STEM and Career and Technical Education (CTE) strategies. Detailed how Washington will strengthen computer science, career-connected learning, preK-3 mathematics and elementary science instruction for all students.
View Client Website >William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Since 2008, provided ongoing counsel to the Education Program to review and strengthen its grantmaking for “deeper learning” in schools, both nationally and in California. Worked with the program director and team to develop and measure annual metrics of progress, refine a logic model and strategies in response to changing challenges and opportunites in the field, convene experts, create dashboards for portfolio monitoring and organize grantees to better share knowledge and pursue common goals.
View Client Website >Zane State College
Conducted interviews with faculty, staff, community and business leaders and students, and prepared a campus-wide strategic plan aimed at accelerating student success.
View Client Website >