Here’s what we do

We offer professional consulting services to build equitable early childhood systems so all young children are able to reach their full potential. 

We have a long history of working alongside our partners to drive change. Our comprehensive approach incorporates our commitment to social justice and our expertise across three service areas—Advise, Implement and Evaluate. We support leaders and communities in states, cities, school districts, foundations, nonprofits and other partners, to examine and communicate the impact of systems-level efforts, improve practice in teaching and leadership, and execute rigorous evaluation of early childhood initiatives.  

No matter the task, working with us is not a one-size-fits-all experience. We design our partnerships to identify and respond to the unique needs of each project and community, including how those needs may change over time. From collaborative research design to co-creating actionable strategic plans, we embrace the dynamics of every partner and stage. 

Advise

We examine and communicate the impact of early childhood infrastructure, services, and investments.

  • We bring together our partners with families, providers, and community leaders to collectively plan for the future. We facilitate a collaborative and strength-based process to build on unique assets as we co-create actionable strategic plans to improve early childhood systems.

    We offer a highly-customizable approach that involves:

    • Deep analysis of the existing context and landscape

    • Setting a common vision among key stakeholders

    • Co-creation of strategies and action steps

    • Identifying measures of success

    • Developing plans for implementation

    See strategic planning in action

  • We design and facilitate intentional conversations for our partners. With each interaction, we combine active listening with our ability to effectively question and push new thinking. As thought partners, we leverage our early childhood expertise to share relevant ideas, trends, and innovations in the field. Together, this helps to create space and offer resources for our partners to meaningfully reflect, solve complex challenges, and find key opportunities to advance their early childhood-focused initiatives.


    We offer a highly-customizable approach that involves:

    • Collaborative meeting design and facilitation

    • Sharing successful practices and tools from the early childhood field

    • Synthesis of key decisions and recommendations for next steps

    See facilitation and thought partnership in action

  • We work to uncover the human story at the core. From crafting ethical and compelling stories to identifying the right delivery strategy, we design storytelling campaigns that effectively communicate the journey of early childhood initiatives. Our services offer a range of support to foster organizational story sharing and team building, as well as to create stories that share impact and promote sustainability.

    We offer a highly-customizable approach that involves:

    • Support to plan and write engaging content

    • Guidance on culturally relevant and inclusive storytelling practices

    • Implementation of story sharing activities through photography, video, websites, and social media

    See storytelling in action

Implement

We help partners design and implement processes for continuous improvement, including tools for building internal leadership and educator capacity.

  • We design and deliver transformational professional learning systems and experiences for organizations, leaders, coaches, and educators.

    We offer a highly-customizable approach that involves:

    • Co-creating and facilitating innovative professional learning

    • Offering experiences that value collaboration and expertise that participants bring

    • Facilitating meetings, professional development and convenings through transformational approaches to adult learning

    • Facilitating content and processes that center equity


    See professional learning support in action

  • We translate equity-focused and anti-bias commitments into meaningful outcomes within systems and organizations and amongst leaders and practitioners.

    We offer a highly-customizable approach that involves:

    • Facilitating analysis of the layered inequities that persist in early learning

    • Offering an individual, organizational, and institutional paradigm when exploring change efforts

    • Developing content that supports self-reflection, historical and current realities, and behavioral change

    • Deploying racially, culturally and linguistically diverse facilitation teams

    • Engaging our experience collaborating with a range of early childhood leaders


    See equity-focused organizational and leadership development in action

Evaluate

We take a collaborative approach to rigorous, responsive, and equity-focused evaluation that centers families and communities. 

  • We design and conduct research and evaluation that aligns with partner needs and priorities, centers the voices of those who experience barriers to opportunity, and produces actionable recommendations. We offer methodological expertise in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods designs. We conduct research and evaluation projects that include a variety of approaches, such as impact analysis, implementation research, surveys, cost analysis, literature reviews, and descriptive studies.


    We offer a highly-customizable approach that involves:

    • Developing research designs and evaluation plans that are responsive to partner and community needs

    • Engaging a broad range of community leaders and members of the field in culturally responsive ways

    • Implementing evaluation plans and collecting data with integrity

    • Conducting rigorous analysis using the most appropriate methodologies to answer the evaluation questions

    • Developing deliverables with findings and recommendations that are actionable, relevant to the community contexts, and tailored to a variety of audiences, including community members, practitioners, policymakers and other researchers


    See     research and evaluation in action

  • We support large- and small-scale data collection nationwide, with a special focus on anti-bias research approaches and protocols that are inclusive of diverse and multilingual participants. Our team brings a broad range of identities, lived experiences, and areas of expertise to our project work, allowing us to challenge assumptions and explore different ways of understanding and interpreting the information we seek, gather, and analyze.

    We offer a highly-customizable approach that involves:

    • Development of data management systems and data collection instruments

    • Preparation for data collection through data collector training and support and participant recruitment

    • Collection and analysis of data for child assessments, observations, surveys, and existing administrative data

    • Development of protocols and collection of qualitative data through focus groups, listening sessions, interviews, and Photovoice

    See data collection systems in action

Where we work

 

Our Partners

 

*National partners

American Institutes for Research*

Association of State Public Health Nutritionists*

Bainum Family Foundation*

Baltimore City Head Start

Baltimore City Public Schools

Buell Foundation

Buffett Institute for Early Childhood

BUILD Initiative*

California State University

Campagna Center

CentroNia

Child Trends*

Children's Opportunity Alliance of Montgomery County

City of Philadelphia

Colorado Department of Education

District of Columbia Public Schools

District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education 

DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative

Early Matters Chattanooga

Early Childhood Funders Collaborative*

Early Educator Investment Collaborative*

Early Learning Challenge TA Center*

Easterseals*

Fairfax Virginia Office for Children

Family League of Baltimore/Baltimore Infants and Toddlers Program

First 5 Alameda County

First 5 California

Fort Worth Independent School District

Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute

Heising-Simons Foundation*

Hope Starts Here

Illinois Board of Education

Inspired Child (formerly Inner City-Inner Child)

Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education

Kentucky Early Childhood Standards Leadership Team

King County (Washington)

Kresge Foundation*

Lourie Center for Social-Emotional Wellness

Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Health

Mathematica

Michigan Department of Education Office of Great Start

Mile High Early Learning

Minnesota Department of Education

Montgomery County Health & Human Services (LEARN)

Montana Zero to Five

Mundo Verde Public Charter School

National Association of Counties*

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine*

National Association of State Leaders in Early Education*

National Black Child Development Institute*

New America*

New Hampshire Department of Education

National League of Cities

North Carolina Division of Child Development and Early Education

North Carolina Governor's Office

Office of Head Start/Administration for Children and Families*

Oregon Early Learning Department

Pennsylvania Office for Child Development & Early Learning

Perigee Fund*

Pre-Pave Public Charter School

Programs for Parents

Robins Foundation

Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning

Special Olympics International*

SRI International*

Starting Strong

Target*

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation*

The Foundation for Enhancing Communities

The Mayor's Office of Chicago/Start Early

The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence

Towson University

Trust for Learning*

University of Virginia

Urban Institute*

Vanguard*

Virginia Early Childhood Foundation

Vermont Child Development Division and Head Start Collaboration Office

Washington Area Women's Foundation

WestEd*

Westside Future Fund 

Wonders Early Learning 

Y of Baltimore Head Start