We support governments in establishing guidance and standards for safe, developmentally appropriate early childhood care and education (ECCE) systems. This includes standards for government-sponsored and private ECCE centers, caregiver certification, preschool curriculum, caregiver professional development, and monitoring and inspection systems. We also advise on government oversight and funding for ECCE, as it often requires collaboration among multiple governmental agencies. We also conduct workshops to help aspiring operators establish new ECCE centers.
We support government ministries in improving access to quality education. This includes educational policy and planning, strategic planning, curriculum reform, teacher pre-service and in-service professional development, school infrastructure, educational leadership, school management, and parent and community engagement. We have particular expertise in early grade reading, socio-emotional learning, and life-skills education.
We support colleges and universities in
improving pre-service teacher education curriculum and instruction. We also
support governments in the consideration of implementing the U.S. community
college type-model for two-year associates degrees and industry-based certification programs.
We support government ministries and private operators in establishing and strengthening career and technical education. This includes program guidance, curriculum development, practica, certification requirements and assessments, instructor professional development and licensing, private-sector involvement, career counseling, and job-matching services. We develop activities related to career exploration for pre-primary and primary school students as well as vocational and career coursework for secondary, post-secondary, and adult education.
We support governments and communities in establishing and strengthening adult education programs, including certificate and non-certificate programs. This includes opportunities for job re-training, niche skills, and other opportunities to weave in and out of a formal or non-formal education system over the life course.
We support government legislators and executives in crafting new educational policies and regulations, analyzing policy proposals, and evaluating the efficacy of policy reforms. This includes tracking the implementation of policies at various levels of an educational system, including fidelity of implementation and innovation over time. We also support governments in long-term strategic planning, annual planning and budgeting, and program implementation schedules.
We support governments in developing and strengthening instructional leadership programs for government officials at all levels of an educational system, head teachers and principals, school inspectors and pedagogical advisors, teachers, school management committees, and parent/teacher associations. This includes developing criteria for instructional leadership, professional development, course development, leadership assessments, school and classroom monitoring tools, and leadership skills tracking systems.
We support government ministries in the assessment of teacher instruction and student learning. These include formative and summative assessments and the assessment of skills in addition to knowledge. We support the development of portfolio assessments and scenario-based assessments in addition to traditional paper- or computer-screen-based assessments. We can review test items for difficulty and alignment with test goals. We can also support the development of test item banks and the digitization of paper-based assessments.
We support government ministries and private schools with the design and implementation of school management courses for head teachers, principals, and school administrators. These include all aspects of school operations, from financial management, to recruitment and staffing, maintenance and repair, student and teacher tracking, talent management, and reporting. We also support the aggregation of school-level management information for summarizing and reporting at district, regional, and system levels.
We support mobilization campaigns related to educational enrollments, quality improvements, local fundraising, and community involvement in school activities. We also provide guidance for the creation of parent/teacher associations and school management committees, including governance structures, recommended procedures, and strategies for school support and communication.
We support governments in system-level reviews of their educational systems. This includes analysis of structures, processes, recruitment and personnel, internal and external communications and feedback loops, financial management and oversight, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting. We support reviews of equity, diversity, inclusion, quality, transitions to different levels of the system, and transitions between the educational system and workforce and civil society. We also review and strengthen educational management and information systems, learning management systems, human resource management systems, and teacher deployment systems.
We support government ministries in the development and strengthening of monitoring and evaluation systems related to access to and persistence in quality education. This includes reviews of monitoring goals; alignment between goals and data collection; data collection procedures; data digitization and cleaning; data completeness, validity, and reliability; protection of human subjects; analytics; data transparency; and reporting. We also support the development of timely and strategic evaluation and applied research questions that can be examined using ethnographic, econometric, and psychometric analysis. We similarly support data collection and reporting plans, data collection and preparation, analysis, and reporting.
We support government ministries at the national and state and provincial levels in the revision and strengthening of educational curricula at all levels of the system. This includes curriculum frameworks aligned with ministry standards, scope and sequence guides, textbooks, student books, teacher guides, supplementary learning materials, manipulatives and other related tools, and formative and summative assessments.
We support colleges and universities in strengthening pre-service teacher education programs, practica, communities of practice, and other induction-related activities. This includes subject-specific content for primary- and secondary-level teachers, content for pre-primary teachers, and content for technical and vocational education instructors, as well as instructional methods for caregivers, teachers, instructors, and faculty at all levels of an educational system. We help develop strategies for student-centered, inclusive instruction; online learning; and formative student assessments. We similarly support providers of in-service teacher professional development at all levels of education systems. This includes the development of advanced certification programs and assessments, peer reviews and support, and the deepening content knowledge and instructional skills.
We support government ministries and private school operators to strengthen classroom instruction at all levels of an education system. This includes guidance about effective instructional practices, the development of classroom observations protocols; guidance for instructional leaders, coaches, pedagogical advisors, and peer reviews; and instructional tracking tools.
We support government ministries in improving their early grade reading systems. This includes alignment of curriculum frameworks to the science of reading; updates to scope and sequence of early grade reading curriculum around the themes of phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing; related updates to textbooks, student books, and supplementary materials; updates to teacher guides rooted in semi-structured instructional scripts; and updates to formative and summative assessments, classroom observation protocols, and coaching guides.
We support government ministries and private school operators in developing and deepening their educational content in all grades related to socio-emotional learning. This includes creating definitions, expected learning outcomes, and related curricular content, instructional support, and formative and summative assessments to track teaching and learning of socio-emotional skills over time.
We support government ministries and private school operators in making schools and classrooms more inclusive for all students, including those with different developmental and academic needs. This includes community engagement activities to promote inclusive classrooms, professional development for teachers regarding the principles of universal design for learning, guidance regarding accommodations and supports for students with various needs, and guidance for assessing and monitoring progress of students with various needs in their educational progress.
We support government ministries and private school operators in incorporating creativity and critical thinking as explicit for students to develop higher-order thinking skills at all levels of education. This includes developing working definitions of these concepts and building related activities and assessments into overall curriculum design.
We support government ministries and private school operators in incorporating career preparation into primary and secondary school curricula. This includes career awareness in earlier grades, employability skills in later grades, and job matching and career services for secondary school students who plan to enter the labor force initially after graduation. We also support the creation and strengthening of vocational and technical education and training programs for secondary and post-secondary schools.
We support government ministries and private school operators in creating and strengthening non-academic skill training for primary and secondary school students. Examples include executive functioning, time management, study skills, life skills, employability skills, and career training.
