With two decades of experience in all 50 states, we understand what makes change stick in some contexts and not in others. We offer research, strategy and facilitation to help leaders cut through fragmentation, engage stakeholders and turn complexity into coherence and vision into action, without sacrificing quality.
Education First is where ideas meet implementation. As former district, state, nonprofit and foundation executives, we’re your thought partners and extra set of hands who help you handle challenges and create real change that sticks.
We design ready-to-implement strategies that are durable and vetted. In every strategy project, we help leaders advance opportunity for all students by building relationships, translating goals into strategies and strengthening trust. Every strategy is tailored to your context and built on evidence and experience.
We help your team and stakeholders work intentionally to unlock more than the sum of their parts. We design and facilitate powerful learning and planning experiences grounded in adult learning research that create the conditions for meaningful partnerships, collective problem-solving and smart technical assistance.
We’ve designed organizations and initiatives including Advance Illinois, Center for Family Math, EdReports, Center for Innovation in College Admission, Stay in the Game! and Washington STEM. We help funders and founders move from vision to execution: develop business plans, recruit leaders and design operational blueprints that endure.
Effective leaders never stop learning. We partner with senior executives to turn big ideas into implementation. Through individual and team advising, strategy design and technical assistance, we help leaders build capacity to transform individual and organizational practice and take coherent, collective action.
AI is reshaping K12 teaching, learning and operations. We help organizations design coherent AI strategies, policies and implementation plans grounded in real problems, not tools. Using our AI x Coherence Framework, we guide leadership teams to innovate responsibly, protect equity and strengthen instruction.
Within and across fragmented local and state education and workforce sectors, we lead with effectiveness and collaboration. We help education leaders align policy, funding, operations and instructional priorities so efforts reinforce rather than compete with one another. Our Coherence Framework is the roadmap for system leaders and changemakers to get results.
The Trump Administration began with a flurry of executive orders and actions that have significant implications for education policy. Our series helps education leaders assess risk, separate signals from noise, and take action with confidence.
This guide distills lessons from the AI x Coherence Academy for district and network leaders. It offers practical tools and examples from the Academy to help systems frame problems, assess AI readiness, define high-value AI K12 use cases and launch generative AI pilots that strengthen teaching and learning.
We convened the first National Forum on the Future of Assessment and Accountability in February 2025, bringing together 300 individuals, including district and state leaders from 30 states and 72 think tanks, foundations, technical assistance providers, advocates, psychometricians and vendors, all working to improve systems of assessment and accountability nationwide.
As former state, district and nonprofit executives, we bring unmatched experience on the issues shaping schools, students, and systems. We see where public education is, and where it’s going, drawing on our experience in all 50 states to help you stay ahead.
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