Our Clients

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.

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.

Facilitated senior state leadership, co-wrote and edited the state’s successful Race to the Top application.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.